Malusi Booi, mayoral committee member for Human Settlements
The story “Housing no show” (Plainsman, February 20)
Beneficiaries of all City of Cape Town housing projects are allocated in accordance with the City’s Allocation Policy and the housing database to ensure that housing opportunities are provided to qualifying applicants in a fair, transparent and equal manner and to prevent queue-jumping.
Beneficiaries will need to meet the qualifying criteria set by National Government which includes, among others, not previously owning property and having a combined monthly income, which does not exceed R3 500.
The current policy states that beneficiaries of BNG (Breaking New Ground) housing projects need to be 40 years old and older.
However, these details will be clarified during the beneficiary administration process for the Beacon Valley housing project, which will commence soon.
Furthermore, a project steering committee (PSC) has been set up for this housing project.
Tafelsig People’s Association (TPA) is on this committee.
The PSC is involved with determining the beneficiary radius or target area for the housing project and recommending the allocation percentage split between beneficiaries who have been on the housing database the longest, based on the agreed application cut-off date; special needs applicants; and those from the targeted areas.
The City’s housing database will provide the names of qualifying beneficiaries and this list will be displayed within the project area for the community to peruse, comment or dispute.
The City will also contact the qualifying beneficiaries to inform them that they have been identified for a housing opportunity.
Applicants are therefore encouraged to ensure that they update their contact details listed on the housing database system.
The Beacon Valley Project will provide 1 818 housing opportunities on three sites.
At this stage it is very difficult to give an estimated date on when the first families will move in. However, a civils contractor is planned to be on site by August this year, for the installation of infrastructure, which is estimated to last for a year (12 months), and thereafter the construction of the houses will commence.
