Integrating Poor Populations in South African Cities - Agence ...

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7. Access to Housing: The Main End Goal of Urban Development Policies responsibilities are specified in the SRU law and are social rental housing, access to home ownership, development, and service provision. Financial Mechanisms The funding supply devoted to financing the social housing commodity chain in France depends greatly on deposits in ‘livret A’ savings accounts. Indeed, the loans granted by social donors are financed from the funds collected via the ‘livret A’ through the intermediary of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (bank of deposits and escrow). The loan for social donors is the Prêt Locatif à Usage Social (PLUS, rental loan for social uses). It can be used to buy land and for construction, as well as to acquire and improve housing. Housing renovation or construction operations break even with the help of not only these ‘livret A’ loans but also of the “1% for housing”, assistance from local governments, state subsidies, and tax advantages. The 1% for housing corresponds to a levy of 0.45% on the payrolls of companies employing more than twenty staff. It enables the granting of subsidies or construction loans. The subsidies from local governments can be investment grants or balancing and operating subsidies. In this last case, the local government may reserve up to 20% of the housing units concerned for its own use. 108 There are several types of assistance in the field of social housing: building grants, individual assistance, and tax assistance that corresponds to investment assistance and can often be likened to a building grant. The building grants are destined for housing producers and lower the cost of investment during the operation. The individual assistance is destined for recipient households and depends on household income. Concretely, donors utilize a minimum building grant to build housing in order to optimize resources because the financing is costly. Finally, individual assistance makes it possible to bridge the gap between the rent at which equilibrium would be attained and the amount the households are able to devote to paying rent. In France, as in most European countries, building grants have been used massively because they make it possible to ensure a certain level of production, notably during quantitative crises. However, they have turned out to be inequitable and costly, and they were reduced when the state backed away from them in favour of individual assistance that makes it possible to introduce more flexibility and equity. Individual assistance is more Integrating Poor Populations in South African Cities © AFD 2009
7. Access to Housing: The Main End Goal of Urban Development Policies redistributive because better targeted and more flexible, but it can also have unwanted effects such as, for example, pushing up rents. Social housing is currently encountering a financing problem linked, among other things, to state withdrawal. Government subsidies to finance operations are progressively dropping, and social housing operators are finding it more and more difficult to maintain financial balance. The Major Difference in Social Housing The system of social rental housing in France is very different from the South African system because it is the government’s principal response in favour of needy populations. Social rental housing in South Africa is more marginal, as the home ownership solutions are favoured in the majority. The French system has existed for a long time and benefits from a production and financing mechanism that is quasi-industrial and automatic. What is more, the French system relies in part on individual assistance, which does not exist in South Africa for housing. 7.5. Slum Management: A Crucial Stake In South Africa, one of the major challenges for public policies aiming to integrate poor populations is informal housing. Despite the government’s efforts to produce housing for struggling populations, shantytowns have continued to grow. The South African government’s position on informal settlements is relatively ambiguous and vacillates between eradication and in-situ improvement. The full range of housing solutions described above is used to respond to households living in highly unsanitary conditions and extreme poverty. Several texts and principles govern public action in regard to these informal settlements: the right to decent housing, the prohibition on expulsing and forcibly displacing populations, the government’s responsibility for safety conditions, and the provision of emergency housing. The Breaking New Ground programme proposes a new national plan of action for informal housing, the Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme (ISUP). This programme takes full measure of the phenomenon and recommends determined action to improve the situation. The coming soccer World Cup probably has something to do with the consideration of the 109 © AFD 2009 Integrating Poor Populations in South African Cities
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Integrating Poor Populations in Sou
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The author Fanny Hervé, an enginee
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Abstract In South Africa, urban dev
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Résumé En Afrique du Sud, les enj
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Contents METHODOLOGY ..............
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Contents CONCLUSION ...............
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Methodology The purpose of this stu
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FOREWORD Public Policies on Housing
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Public Policies on Housing and Urba
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Introduction At the end of aparthei
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PART ONE: An Urban Context Marked b
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An Urban History of South Africa: F
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1. An Urban History of South Africa
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Current Challenges 2 The apartheid
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2. Current Challenges 2.1.2. The Na
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2. Current Challenges However, desp
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2. Current Challenges Progressively
Page 57 and 58: 2. Current Challenges far from the
Page 59 and 60: 2. Current Challenges commutes are
Page 61 and 62: Urban Development Policies in a Uni
Page 63 and 64: 3. Urban Development Policies in a
Page 69 and 70: PART TWO An Uncertain Determination
Page 71 and 72: Planning as Implemented in South Af
Page 73 and 74: 4. Planning as Implemented in South
Page 81 and 82: The Hindrances to the Effectiveness
Page 83 and 84: 5. The Hindrances to the Effectiven
Page 85 and 86: Paths Toward More Profitable Planni
Page 87 and 88: 6. Paths Toward More Profitable Pla
Page 89 and 90: PART THREE Develop Living Spaces fo
Page 91 and 92: Access to Housing: The Main End Goa
Page 93 and 94: 7. Access to Housing: The Main End
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Page 113 and 114: The Limits of the Government’s Ac
Page 115 and 116: 8. The Limits of the Government’s
Page 127 and 128: Toward Greater Integration of Publi
Page 129 and 130: 9. Toward Greater Integration of Pu
Page 141 and 142: Conclusion Nearly fifteen years ago
Page 143 and 144: Acronyms and Abbreviations ABM AFD
Page 145 and 146: Acronyms and Abbreviations RZ SACN
Page 147 and 148: Appendices Appendix 1: Interviews I
Page 149 and 150: Appendices • Claire Bénit-Gaffou
Page 151 and 152: Appendices Pretoria • Revelation
Page 153 and 154: Appendices Appendix 3: Map of Johan
Page 155 and 156: Appendices Appendix 5: Map of Ethek
Page 157 and 158: Bibliography Books DU TOIT, J., U.
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Bibliography Articles BÉNIT, C. (2
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Bibliography REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRI
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Publications Les titres de la colle
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Publications No. 23 : Libéralisati
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What is AFD? www.afd.fr Agence Fran
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