Question NW472 to the Minister of Human Settlements
09 September 2024 - NW472
De Bruin, Ms K to ask the Minister of Human Settlements
(1) Considering that some of the Social Housing projects that are established far from amenities such as schools, thus forcing even disabled school children to travel long distances to get to schools, what plans has she put in place to align the human settlements development with the broader social, environmental, educational and economic needs of the poor and disadvantaged communities?
Reply:
Social housing is developed within the gazetted Restructuring Zones, which is a minimum investment criterion as per the Social Housing Act 16 of 2008. The Restructuring Zones are geographic areas which have been identified by the Municipalities with the concurrence of the provinces for the purposes of social housing development. These are further expressed in both Local Government Plans IDPs and Provincial Plans.
The principle behind the Restructuring Zones is to promote spatial and racial integration, economic mobility and access to public amenities. It must however be said that in approving projects, the location of these public amenities is critical, and it is one of the key determinants for an investment decision. Equally, the schools for the disabled population are few and not as commonly found throughout the country.
In so far as the current social housing development is concerned, the Minister has on the 20th of January 2023 approved the Norms and Standards for social and rental housing, which amongst others, deals with the infrastructure required to accommodate people with disabilities. The Social Housing Regulatory Authority has in the recent past approved projects on Prasa owned stations to reduce travel time and save tenants cost of mobility. Furthermore, SHRA looks at Municipalities to consider Spatial Development Framework, bulk services availability, etc. to support the project locations through the DDM in order to respond to the needs of the people with disabilities.
As part of a development, each social housing project has a recreational facility such as a 6 side soccer field, kids play areas, jungle gym and braai areas.
For the 2024/25 financial year the provinces allocated a total budget of R15 097 825 towards the Institutional subsidy programme from the Human Settlements Development Grant.