REFLECTING ON 10 YEARS OF SOCIAL HOUSING

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REFLECTING ON 10 YEARS OF SOCIAL HOUSING

• SOCIAL HOUSING FOUNDATION SEMINAR
• 22 23 JULY 2008
• DURBAN
• MONTY NARSOO

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A JOURNEY INTO THE PAST

• There have many reviews of social housing in
  South Africa which have cost the lives of many
  trees. This journey represents a more personal
  response and starts with this presenter
  involvement in the Seven Buildings Project in
  1990. The motive for the journey is simple That
  we care enough to ensure that social and rental
  housing provides a place of comfort, security,
  and access to the amenities of life for people,
  particularly the poor. That it is a means rather
  than an end.

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The Past haunts the Present 1992-1994

• Two key issues emerge in the Negotiations in
  National Housing Forum
• One million houses therefore a supply side
  strategy.
• Ownership as the dominant option of delivering
  housing
• The transfer of public rental stock

• Understanding the demand side was limited to the
  quantitative aspects of backlog.
• Ownership was a political imperative.
• Only a few argued for more collective forms of
  ownership or alternative forms tenure.

4
The Past haunts the Present 1995

• Introduction of the institutional housing
  subsidy.
• The Seven Buildings project is the first
  institutional subsidy

• The institutional subsidy is a departure from the
  individual ownership. It requires greater
  capacity from the state and other institutions to
  assess the viability of institutions to manage
  public money.
• In allocating money to a co-operative model it
  chooses the most complex form property management
  which has since proved to be a failure

5
The Past haunts the Present 1996

• The NHFC is established which in turn establishes
  the the HIDF and SHF. A number institutions are
  set up subsequently to support social housing

• Institutional arrangements add complexity to the
  housing process. The key problem of co-ordination
  of capacity and funding is highlighted. Even more
  importantly Intergovernmental relations
  particularly in relation to subsidy allocations
  becomes and remains a problem
• One of key issues of ignored is the operational
  costs of institutions and inadequate
  capitalisation of them.

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The Past haunts the Present 1996 continued

• The GDOH introduces the Land Tenant Act. NDOH
  later introduces national legislation in this
  regard. A number of other pieces of legislation
  are introduced and/or amended.

• Governance and governability remains a problem.
  Governance is attempt at the state and SHI levels
  to ensure that the rights and obligations are
  complied with. Governability is to ensure rules
  are respected.
• The issues of invasions, evictions, and
  compliance are deeply influenced by politics and
  the courts and have deeply affected the viability
  of projects.

7
The Past haunts the Present 1998

• The key issue blocking the PJSP was the standard
  and cost of the units vs the affordability. The
  present imperative at reaching deeper down still
  remains an problem and is reinforced property
  prices on well located land.
• The issue of public rental stock is being raised
  again politically and therefore the amount of
  institutional and capital subsidies.
• At present municipal housing stock has high
  operational subsidies but these are by default.

• At the behest of the trade unions public rental
  stock is put on the agenda of the Presidential
  Jobs Summit. Money was released for the project.
  Later the PJSP opted for a PPP model which has as
  yet not happened

8
The Past haunts the Present 2002

• A number of studies have been commissioned on the
  rental housing market the latest of which is and
  analysis of supply and demand by the SHF. In 2002
  and urban housing markets study was commissioned
  by the NDOH which pointed to prevalence of
  backyard rental.

• In 2002 the NDOH was opposed to backyard rental.
  It has been described by various studies as
  sub-optimal rental. Yet it remains popular,
  affordable, accessible, and the main supplier of
  rental accomodation.

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The Past haunts the Present 2003

• Urban Development Zones are introduced to boost
  urban regeneration and rates bases. Other
  initiatives are taken to further incentivise
  private sector activity in the housing market

• The success of these initiatives are mixed. Where
  they have been successful there has been a
  tendency to push out poorer people from the CBDs.
  This poses a challenge of how to ensure a place
  for the poor in well located aeras such as CBDs
  and inner cities. Is it time for zone of social
  inclusion?

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The Imperative of CPSHS (BNG?)

• The essence of the Comprehensive plan is that it
  is demand defined and supply negotiated. Often
  the demand is reflected in quantitative analyses.
  The need particularly at the local level to
  understand that there multiple markets at work,
  some less formal than others, and some more
  socially dominant than legal. This points to two
  issues
• How can the state and its agencies be responsive
  to these qualitative dynamics given its
  limitations, and
• Can we change how we count delivery from merely
  looking at the number of formal units