Youth participation in the social housing value chain

The Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA) recently held a webinar aimed at encouraging young people to partner with the SHRA to develop government-subsidised, affordable social housing rental units.

With South Africa’s startling youth unemployment rate, it is vital that all sectors of society and industry aid in easing barriers to entry for young people. The youth and companies can become successful contributors to social housing, through various avenues: • Becoming an accredited social housing institution (SHI), which must be a nonprofit organisation. SHIs are required to meet a set of qualifying criteria designed to ensure quality delivery standards in order to achieve accreditation status. Through this avenue, the SHRA can subsidise up to 70% of the total project costs. • Becoming an other delivery agent (ODA), which can be a private company – although 20% equity is expected from them. An ODA may construct, own, maintain and rent out housing to qualifying tenants. • Becoming a service provider to the SHRA, which procures various services including recruitment agencies, legal services, auditors, IT equipment, marketing and other services in support of SHRA’s core programme. The professional guidance of the SHRA is available to young people who are looking to explore these avenues. “The SHRA team is available to address your queries, as it is vital that you receive help early on, to make the most of the opportunities available,” said Lesego Diale, marketing and communications manager, SHRA. She highlighted the SHRA’s interest in procuring services from youth-owned companies as vital for stimulating transformation across the value chain.

Diale further highlighted the distinction between free government housing and subsidised social housing. “We aim to offer quality, comfortable and well-located urban housing options to low- and middle-income households. These developments go a long way in overcoming the spatial inequalities of the apartheid era, where housing options were placed far from economic opportunities. It is important that our developments are appealing to tenants, and are in areas where they can work, live and learn in close proximity.”

Building capacity

Dudu Phoswa, acting sector development and transformation (SD&T) executive, provided insights into the SHRA’s mandate, and the SD&T training programme. “We contribute to a transformed social housing sector, and aim to establish functioning and well-managed delivery agents, which are sure to meet a landlord’s responsibilities to its tenants.” The SD&T training programme offers capacity-building grants and management assistance, which helps up-and-coming entities grow into sustainable businesses.

Demonstrating the SHRA’s commitment to youth-owned companies, the final presenter of the seminar was Bob Mukahanana, CEO of Let’s Care South Africa – a youth-owned nonprofit company that has successfully entered the social housing sector. “The SHRA’s capacity-building grant went a long way in assisting us as a young SHI, and we have made great progress. We recently won a project in Springs with 246 units.”

ATTEND THE NEXT SHRA SESSION

Parties interested in attending the next SHRA information session and training can register online here.