E THEKW I NI • HU M A N S E T T L E M E N T S
Housing the residents of eThekwini
Over the past five years, eThekwini Municipality’s Human Settlements Unit has acquired more than 13 500 hectares of land for housing development projects.
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total of 15 799 qualifying beneficiaries received free homes under the Breaking New Ground (BNG) Programme. For the gap market, which comprises low-middle-income earners, 1 893 housing opportunities for both ownership and rental were facilitated. Moreover, in addressing construction problems in houses built before 1994, 3 053 housing units were upgraded or rebuilt. Included in the Unit’s scope of work is the upgrading and refurbishing of community residential units (CRUs), formerly hostels, in eThekwini Municipality. To this end, 290 family units were constructed inside the CRU
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precincts. The ownership of flats was also transferred to more than 8 000 occupants. In recent years, the City has dedicated resources to addressing the impact of storms, with the assistance of national disaster funding. For residents who do not meet the income bracket for low-income housing or municipal rental stock, the municipality facilitates the Finance-linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP), which assists in securing a mortgage as well subsidised rental stock by housing institutions. In the 2020/21 financial year, 1 737 new BNG/RDP houses were built in eThekwini. These houses are subsidised by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements (DoHS) for low-income earners who are first-time homeowners and meet the criteria as set down by the DoHS. The City provides additional funding for the delivery of associated engineering services. The eThekwini Human Settlements Unit works as an implementing agent as per the developer status afforded by the KwaZulu-Natal Human Settlements Department for housing projects within eThekwini boundaries. This is done on
