Slangpark Housing Project

The Slangpark Housing Project built 843 houses as a pilot project in Grabouw, Theewaterskloof Municipality, in the Western Cape, in the span of 1 year to address issues of homelessness caused by a fire.  The project was classified as a People's Housing Project (PHP) in order to bypass legislation regarding a R2 500 contribution by possible housing residents.  The Theewaterskloof Municipality was the developer, and a project manager from the municipality co-ordinated the project.  All of the funding came from the Western Cape Provincial Department of Housing through the housing subsidy scheme.  With assistance of the project manager, and local councilor, the beneficiaries were fully involved in choosing the house designs.  The crux of the project, however, was the training of beneficiaries to build their own houses.  The project was undertaken in partnership with the municipality, the Western Cape Department of Local Government and Housing, the Western Cape Department of Labour (who trained the builders) and a construction consultant.

With the help of the Department of Labour, beneficiaries were trained in the skills of building, plumbing, and carpentry.  The trainees would then, with the help of a professional builder, use the materials supplied by the municipality and start building their own homes.  The skills attained through the training, and consequent building of their home, endowed the recipients with a new set of employable skills, contributing to poverty alleviation in the immediate area.

Innovation

The SlangPark Housing Project, rather just providing housing, trained the proposed recipients of new houses to do the building themselves thereby providing the people with new skills, which would make them more employable.  Also the community had full control in the process of house design and construction, which garnered a sense of ownership and pride in the house and residential community they constructed.

Effectiveness

Within 1 year, 843 houses have been built, at total cost of R20 million, with an individual cost of R24 000, to cater to the Slangpark community who saw their informal settlement destroyed by a fire.

Poverty Impact

The provision of houses for the 843 families, which included some 4 000 individual residents, is a huge benefit to the recipients and their respective livelihoods. A house is cleaner and warmer, and therefore prevents diseases associated with living in an informal settlement.

Sustainability

This was a once-off project, and has been completed.

Replication

This project illustrated how government, together with the local community, can partner well to provide necesary services.  This initiative, however small in scope, can easily be replicated for projects ranging in size from 500 to 5 000 houses.

Partnerships

• Western Cape Department of Housing and local government
• Department of Labour
• Theewaterskloof Municipality