Joburg housing crisis: The buck stops with CoJ and funding
The Inner City Housing Implementation Plan, commissioned a decade ago and approved in 2017 to provide temporary emergency accommodation, has yet to be fully implemented.
A view of a hijacked building in the Johannesburg CBD. Picture: Jacques Nelles/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - Social housing for the poor and temporary emergency accommodation for the homeless remains a major setback in the revitalisation of the Johannesburg inner city.
Despite the private sector coming to the party, the City of Johannesburg has dragged its feet when it comes to actioning plans.
ALSO READ:
One such plan is the Inner City Housing Implementation Plan, commissioned a decade ago and approved in 2017, but yet to be fully implemented.
The plan sought to provide emergency services to critical buildings and temporary emergency accommodation with help from the private sector.
In order for the City of Joburg to adequately fund the project, a detailed budget would need to be presented to the National Human Settlements Department.
But years later, and following the deaths of more than 80 people who perished in three separate hijacked building fires, the city is yet to make an application to Human Settlements.
City of Joburg Human Settlements Executive Director Patrick Phophi: “The city allocates in the tune of R5 million to R15 million for us to allocate properties, or to look at avenues of buying land.”
He said the city was in the process of putting together a comprehensive report on bad and hijacked buildings to the department to secure additional funding.