MSINGA MUNICIPAL HOUSING PLAN 1. INTRODUCTION: 1.1 Isibuko se-Africa (in association with SRK Consulting) was appointed, in January 2007, to assist the Msinga Municipality with the preparation of a Municipal Housing Plan. 1.2 “Housing” refers to an integrated approach to development with the primary focus being on the delivery of shelter. As indicated in Figure 1 below, housing includes, among others, the development of housing units, service delivery, the upgrading of land tenure rights, social and community development and planning policy issues. Future housing projects should aim to achieve all of these development goals. Figure 1: Housing Concept SUSTAINABLE HUMAN SETTLEMENT Shelter Community Facilities Community Poverty Alleviation Poverty NATION BUILDING Service Delivery Service DEVELOPMENT INTEGRATED Land Land Tenure Job Creation Job Self Self Esteem Policy Legislation Programmes Budget SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Housing delivery within the Msinga Municipal Area occurs mainly in the form of state funded, low cost housing in which the municipality serves as a developer. 1.3 The purpose of the National Housing Code (March 2000 is to set out clearly the National Housing Policy of South Africa. It identifies the primary role of the municipality as taking all reasonable and necessary steps, within the framework of national and provincial legislation and policy, to ensure that the inhabitants within its area of jurisdiction have access to adequate housing on a progressive basis. This entails the following: Initiating, planning, facilitating and co-ordinating appropriate housing development. This can be undertaken by the municipality itself or by the appointment of implementing agents. 1 ISIBUKO SE-AFRICA JANUARY 2008 MSINGA MUNICIPAL HOUSING PLAN Preparing a housing delivery strategy and setting up housing development goals. Setting aside, planning and managing land for housing. Creating a financially and socially viable environment for housing delivery. Facilitating the resolution of conflicts arising from housing delivery initiatives. Facilitating the provision of bulk services. Administering national housing programmes. Expropriating land for housing development. The aim of this plan is to assist the municipality in fulfilling the abovementioned role assigned to it in terms of the National Housing Code. 1.4 The Comprehensive Plan for the Development of Sustainable Human Settlements (August 2004) and the Guidelines for the Implementation of Labour-Intensive Infrastructure Projects under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) should also be taken into account. The Comprehensive Plan provides detailed information on the programmes identified by the National Department of Housing. It provides clear indicators of deliverables, time frames and estimated resource requirements. The new “Human Settlements Plan” promotes the achievement of a non-racial, integrated society through the development of sustainable human settlements and quality housing. Housing is to be utilized for the development of sustainable human settlements in support of spatial restructuring. This plan makes acknowledgements to the existing housing policy and it attempts to enhance the existing mechanism to such an extent that it becomes more responsive and effective in delivery. This includes, amongst others, the following: Stimulation of the residential property market i.e. the policy intends to expand the number of households that qualify for the housing subsidy e.g. previously a person who qualifies must earn less than R 3 500 pm. The policy states that this household income criteria was based on the assumption that end – user finance would be accessed for the construction of houses by income groups above R 3 500. This has not occurred successfully and there is a growing disjuncture between subsidy and non – subsidy residential accommodation. The policy therefore responds to this issue through proposing a new subsidy mechanism that will facilitate the availability and accessibility of affordable housing finance products/ instruments to medium income households earning between R 3 500 – R 7 000 pm. This mechanism will be linked to households’ savings and loans from financial institutions. 2 ISIBUKO SE-AFRICA JANUARY 2008 MSINGA MUNICIPAL HOUSING PLAN Collapsing the subsidy bands i.e. the previous three bands was collapsed to such an extent that every individual that earns less than R 3 500 should be considered to access uniform subsidy amount. The previous three bands targeted the R0 – R 1 500 income group to access the uniform subsidy amount while other households that earn between R 1 500 – R 2 500 and R 2 500 – R 3 500 would access less that a uniform subsidy amount. Spatial restructuring and sustainable human settlement i.e. enhancing spatial planning and the location of new housing projects are one of the critical matters which the policy raises. It is recommended that co – ordination between the three government departments that deal with spatial planning (i.e. Department of Land Affairs, Department of Housing and Department of Provincial and Local Government) is required. The outcomes of such co – ordination should be to develop a single overarching planning instrument to provide macro – level guidance to support the development of sustainable human settlements on well-located land. The policy also encourages progressive informal settlement upgrade within the urban fabric and the promotion of densification and integration. Social (medium – density) housing programme: the policy intends to facilitate the production of effectively managed institutional housing in areas where a demand exists for housing of this type. It is further emphasised in the policy document that little attention has been paid on categorising rental accommodation in public policy and the broader residential property market. It has in fact become an increasingly important component of the residential property market. This is usually in the form of backyard shacks, student accommodation and granny flats. The necessity of including rental accommodation in public policy will be to have regulation, monitoring and standardization in place. This will in turn provide support through the housing improvement grant to ensure that basic standards are achieved in the provision of rental housing. Developing the rural housing instrument: the policy makes reference to urban bias and states that in the case of rural areas (on the demand and supply side) the primary intervention needed is the installation of infrastructure rather than housing structures. It is further stated that in the case of rural areas, the key intervention in human settlements must take account of the following: - Comprehensive range of rural housing related issues such as tenure, livelihood strategies and broader socio – cultural issues. - Respond to the needs of farm workers and farm dwellers. - Enhancing traditional technologies and indigenous knowledge, which are being used to construct housing in 3 ISIBUKO SE-AFRICA JANUARY 2008 MSINGA MUNICIPAL HOUSING PLAN order to improve shelter, services and tenure (if either of these are priorities for the inhabitants there). - Developing an appropriate funding mechanism to support the rural housing programme. Institutional reform and capacity building: it does not merely focus on education and training but includes organizational development issues such as appropriate institutions, arrangement support, systems and procedures training and adequate resourcing. It will focus on the following institutions: Municipalities, Social Housing Institutions, PHP institutions, Financial institutions and communities. Housing subsidy funding system reform: The other important aspect that the policy discusses is the adjustment of the housing subsidy in the case of inflation (that might arise due to macro – economic issues) because previously this was ignored and developers decided to ‘pull out’ of projects due to the sudden reduction of profits (when inflation takes place) and this slows down housing delivery. Housing and Job Creation: the new settlement plan is expected to maximise job creation in various sectors such as the social, economic, housing, infrastructure and management construction sectors. The EPWP aims at alleviating and reducing unemployment by the provision of work opportunities. The principles/guidelines of the above plan/programme should be taken into account when housing projects are undertaken. 1.5 The National Environmental Management Act No. 107 of 1998 was enacted to ensure that the Constitutional right of individuals, to live in an environment that is not harmful to his or her health or well being, is protected. It therefore purports that development should be undertaken in a sustainable manner. The regulations to the Act (Gazette 28938, Regulation Gazette 8488, 6 June 2006) regulates the procedures for the submission, processing, consideration and decision of applications for environmental authorization of identified activities. The regulations have distinguished between activities that require basic and detailed assessments. In terms of the activities identified the following activity would require a basic assessment to be undertaken viz. “The transformation of undeveloped, vacant or derelict land to residential, mixed, retail, commercial, industrial or institutional use where such development does not constitute infill and where the total area to be transformed is bigger than 1 hectare”. 4 ISIBUKO SE-AFRICA JANUARY 2008 MSINGA MUNICIPAL HOUSING PLAN The