(Volume 4) - Mental Health Disorders - Vula - University of Cape Town

C. Existing Interventions in the Western Cape Province1. HousingThe vision of the National Housing Policy of South Africa is outlined in thedefinition for “housing development”, contained within the Housing Act, 1997(No. 107 of 1997):1(vi)“…the establishment and maintenance of habitable, stable andsustainable public and private residential environments to ensureviable households and communities, in areas allowing convenientaccess to economic opportunities and to health, educational and socialamenities, in which all citizens and permanent residents of theRepublic will, on a progressive basis have access to -(a) permanent residential structures with secure tenure, ensuringinternal and external privacy and providing adequate protectionagainst the elements; and(b) potable water, adequate sanitary facilities and domestic energysupply.”Given the evidence regarding the impact on mental health of affordablehousing and a quality built environment described above, it is clear that thevision of our Housing Policy already recognises and makes provision for arange of health protective mechanisms such as privacy, social connectivity,access to the economy and access to health. Furthermore, the Housing Codemakes provision for a range of housing subsidies where the poor can accessup to R36 528 (http://www.capegateway.gov.za/) in order to purchase ahouse. Since 1994, the Department of Housing has delivered more than 2million houses as of September 2006 (http://www.housing.gov.za/) which isan achievement. Despite this impressive delivery, it has been estimated thatapproximately 30% of South Africans still have inadequate housing with thenumbers of people on the waiting list for housing at 2.4 million (Oldfield,2007).Some of the criticisms that have been made about housing delivery areillustrative of the gaps between the vision of the Housing Act and itssuccessful realization or implementation. Baumann & Mitlin (2003) andOldfield (2007) note the following problems:‣ the large gap between the supply of, and demand for, housing;‣ the slow delivery of housing;‣ the poor quality of state housing (top structures and supportinginfrastructure) with houses typically being small (less than 12m 2 ) andovercrowded;‣ the location of state housing in remote areas, where economic andsocial opportunities are scarce and transport costs are high;‣ the lack of community involvement in the process of rehousing;‣ an insufficient regard for social networks in the process of rehousing;45