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Showing posts from November, 2006

BBC NEWS | Africa | Is there a roof over your head?

BBC NEWS Africa Is there a roof over your head? : "Last Updated: Friday, 3 March 2006, 12:53 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version Is there a roof over your head? Are you struggling to find a place to live? In the next 30 years the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Habitat, estimates that two billion people or 31.6% of the global urban population will be living in slums unless substantial changes are made. They describe a slum household as 'a group of individuals living under the same roof that lack one or more of the following conditions: access to safe water, access to sanitation, secure tenure, durability of housing, and sufficient living area'. Do you live, or have you ever lived, in such conditions? What stops people from living elsewhere? Are rents too high? Are landlords making unreasonable demands? Why aren't people buying their own places? "

allAfrica.com: Namibia: Housing Crisis - What Are the Solutions?

allAfrica.com: Namibia: Housing Crisis - What Are the Solutions? : "Namibia: Housing Crisis - What Are the Solutions? Email This Page Print This Page New Era (Windhoek) November 17, 2006 Posted to the web November 17, 2006 Surihe Gaomas Windhoek With over 65 percent of Namibians not having affordable and decent housing, the country faces an uphill battle to close the huge housing backlog. High levels of poverty and unemployment, limited capital investment, spiralling building costs and little financial support for low-income groups are some of the major challenges facing the sector. Estimations are that Namibia will need 300 000 low-cost housing units in rural and urban areas up to the year 2030. The fear is that the pace of housing delivery is too slow to meet the huge public demand. Like Namibia, other Southern African countries are in a similar dilemma. Against this background, hundreds of housing experts from Namibia, SADC and further abroad are currently putting their heads t

Sunday Independent: 'Housing on steroids' boon for SA

Sunday Independent: 'Housing on steroids' boon for SA : "'Housing on steroids' boon for SA Historic pact will see an explosion of construction to wipe out housing backlogs and slums, says minister September 25, 2005 Edition 1 (Todays date 28 November 2006) Christelle Terreblanche An explosion of building activity will hit South Africa in the next few months in an effort to wipe out slums, but it is also tipped to give economic growth and job creation a hefty boost. This was the promise of Lindiwe Sisulu, the housing minister, after she signed a historic social contract with all role players in the housing and construction industry aimed at jointly eradicating the country's 2,4 million-unit housing backlog. In an interview Sisulu was upbeat despite a last-minute retreat by the property development sector on a deal to provide 20 percent-lower-cost housing for exclusive high-end developments - accompanied by suggestions that an even higher percentage could be neg

Alexandra housing project struggles on poor planning - www.eprop.co.za

Alexandra housing project struggles on poor planning - www.eprop.co.za : "Chantelle Benjamin Johannesburg Metro Editor THE R1,3bn Alexandra Renewal Project will not meet its 2007 housing deadline, a fact project officials have been aware of for some time despite rosy reports to the contrary. Only 600 housing units have been provided in the first four years of the project, instead of the required 21000. Many of the houses are too expensive for Alexandra residents, requiring new plans for the introduction of cheaper accommodation. A report presented last week to the Johannesburg City Council by the project’s new director, Julian Baskin, outlines poor planning and management by previous project directors. In the report, he asked the city to raise R400m over the remainder of the project — the next 27 months — to include cheaper houses and one-room units for rent. The housing programme is financed largely by the Gauteng housing department through its subsidies and grants, but the city

Business Day - News Worth Knowing

Business Day - News Worth Knowing CAROL PATON: Yes. The problems at local government level are immense - there are desperate skills shortages amongst the councils, there are financial problems - in some areas there really are failing services. Where once you had services that worked you are finding that more and more services are failing - the biggest problem really that I found, the new problem, the thing that shocked me most - was that one of the things that is exacerbating the situation is the level of corruption amongst local government politicians who are driving out competent officials. Officials who want them to abide by the law - they don’t want to listen to them, they are driving them out and then they are taking those councils and doing what they want with them. The consequences for service delivery are disastrous. In the Secunda area at eMbalenhle in the Govan Mbeki Municipality I went to sewerage station after sewerage station where there is raw sewerage flowing straight fr

UNHABITAT REPORT

HS/C/16/2/Add.2

Ford Foundation Report

Ford Foundation Report

Habitat for Humanity South Africa

Habitat for Humanity South Africa

Business Day - News Worth Knowing

Business Day - News Worth Knowing : "Aid of R37bn fails to meet housing needs Nick Wilson E-Mail articlePrint-Friendly Related Links More Reports: National Property Correspondent GOVERNMENT is losing the battle to provide houses despite having paid out more than R37bn on subsidies for low-cost housing since 1994. The promise of housing for all South Africans has been a key plank of the African National Congress platform for the past 12 years. But the migration of people to cities, an influx of refugees to SA and policy mismanagement have seen SA moving backwards in this quest. Big construction firms have pulled out of the lower end of the housing market in search of more lucrative projects. And banks have warned that a shortage of land and housing stock could stymie their ability to meet commitments under the financial sector charter. Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu referred in her recent budget speech in Parlaiment to the magnitude of the challenge presented by the housing backlo

Affordable Housing Crisis: The "Silent Killer"

Affordable Housing Crisis: The "Silent Killer"

Govt pushes for low-cost housing - The Press: local, national & world news from Christchurch's daily newspaper

Govt pushes for low-cost housing - The Press: local, national & world news from Christchurch's daily newspaper : "Govt pushes for low-cost housing 31 October 2006 JOHN HENZELL Reviving the Kiwi dream of home ownership may mean developers are forced to include affordable housing in their projects or pay for them to be built elsewhere. Housing Minister Chris Carter yesterday outlined options designed to reverse New Zealand's trend from having one of the highest home- ownership rates in the world to where one-third of the population – more than in Australia, Britain or the United States – have to rent. The options include increasing the stock of affordable housing by Government building programmes, joint construction ventures with community, church or iwi groups, and giving city and district councils the power to force or reward developers to include low-cost housing. For Rebecca and Phil Washbourn, Christchurch house hunters who in July became the public face of the issu

Growth Management, Smart Growth, And Affordable Housing

Growth Management, Smart Growth, And Affordable Housing

For more on moladi

What is the cost to 3D print a house?

LOW COST HOUSING design concept

Emailing: allAfrica.com Angola President Dos Santos Confident About Sustainable Development (Page 1 of 1)