Affordable rental housing is an important form of housing tenure in urban areas, providing opportunities and choice for households seeking housing. Since 2004, government has recognised this and has extended the choice of tenure options available to very low, low- and medium-income households, particularly in better-located parts of the urban environment (McCarthy, 2010). This has resulted in the development of government programmes to support the development and strengthening of the rental sector. This study is an attempt to examine the delivery of affordable rental housing in urban areas, with the focus on Johannesburg inner city, and to assess options currently provided by role players in this sector and the constraints that are faced in achieving successful delivery of this accommodation. The study looked at large private and public organisations involved in this market for a comparative analysis of challenges in the affordable rental housing market. Interviews were conducted with key people from the selected organisations in the Johannesburg inner city in order to draw from their experiences of the market. Constraints highlighted by the organisations are; the slow release of buildings for conversion and upgrading into units by the City of Johannesburg, high costs of utilities charged by the City of Johannesburg in the inner city and the monthly rentals defaulting by tenants. As a way forward, it is anticipated that the new Inner City Property Scheme will address the slow release of stock for conversion and upgrading into units. The study recommends that continuous research on affordable rental housing should be done in order to establish innovative ways of dealing with the challenges.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Public Management.)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2012. / This study has examined the implementation of the incremental housing process, or as the researcher has termed it, self-driven housing, in rural South Africa. Self-driven housing is the type of housing where individual households drive the processes of addressing their own housing issues, with government playing a supporter role. The purpose of the study was to obtain a thorough understanding of how this process has been implemented internationally and in South Africa to improve the lives and living spaces of the rural poor. Most importantly, this study was aimed at investigating whether this process can be considered a viable alternative to the provision of free low-cost government houses in the quest for reducing the housing backlog, in South Africa in general, and urban areas in particular. In other words, "Can the self-driven housing approach be a solution to the housing crisis in South Africa?"

The huge housing backlog that plagues South Africa requires concerted effort to develop capacity for low-income delivery systems that will improve the socioeconomic conditions of low-income people. Social housing, and housing associations in particular are recent housing delivery systems that promise to meet the needs of low-income people in South Africa. It is the intention of this research to investigate to what extent housing associations can improve housing delivery and improve the socio-economic conditions of low-income people. The literature review provides information on national experience in housing delivery. It investigates the difficulties of housing provision and how delivery fails to meet the needs of low-income people in South Africa. An international model of housing associations is used to provide an alternative form of delivery that may assist in reducing the backlog. The research uses integrated development as a framework for housing delivery. This paradigm advocates mixed landuse, and mixed income housing. Thus, it a move against 'housing in the veld" and 'one house one plot' delivery, and encourages housing delivery that is integrated with other functions within the inner city. Two examples of Johannesburg's inner city housing associations, namely Navarone and Jeppe Oval are used as case studies. These two case studies suit an integrated development approach. The survey includes a sample of 30 people from the two housing associations. Data analysis of the socio-economic issues and responses of tenants suggests that housing associations provide better living conditions and therefore a viable option for housing delivery in inner city areas of South Africa. / Thesis (M.Sc.U.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.

The role of RDP housing cannot be underestimated and it plays a big role in South Africa. It assists those who are less fortunate to afford to buy houses. RDP housing delivery is not only expected to put a roof over people's heads but to change their lives in various ways. RDP housing delivery tackles issues related to social and economic enviroment. In terms of policy documents and surveys, research has shown that it is critical to incorporate RDP housing beneficiaries from planning right up to development stage. Public participation and the involvement of beneficiaries from the planning stage onward assists in determining the basic needs of the community that can be addresed through RDP housing development. This study is about the role of RDP housing in revitalising the socio-economic environment with a specific reference to Second Creek, which is under the jurisdiction of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality.

The study examines the issue of living conditions in informal settlements, using the case study of Imizamo Yethu informal settlement in Cape Town. Affordability, lack of space, job related issues, a relatively small formal housing stock available in many urban centres, and deregulation, in terms of both access to land and finance, forced lower income groups to seek accommodation in informal settlements. Here people are exposed to unhealthy living conditions. The study reveals that living in informal settlements often poses significant health risks. Sanitation, food storage facilities and drinking water quality are often poor, with the result that inhabitants are exposed to a wide range of pathogens and houses may act as breeding grounds for insect vectors. In informal settlements people often live in temporary homes constructed with impermanent, basic materials. These inhabitants frequently have little option but to live on marginal land (flood plains or steep slopes, for example), with the consequence that they are the first to suffer the effects of cyclones and floods. In addition, a combination of overcrowding, the use of open fires and flammable buildings leads to danger from accidental fires, burns and scalding. The post-apartheid South African government has tried a number of housing initiatives to help alleviate the housing problem since 1994 when it came to power. These have included the Botshabelo Accord (1994), the Housing White Paper in 1995, the National Urban and Reconstruction Housing Agency in 1995, the Housing Subsidy Scheme in 1995, the Housing Act No. 107 of 1997 and the Policy on People’s Housing Process (1998). The government set itself a target of delivering one million houses within five years. By all indications the government did not fully comprehend the gravity of the problem in relation to available resources. In 2004, the Department of Housing declared its intention to eradicate informal settlements in South Africa by 2014. This followed the unprecedented housing backlog, proliferation of informal settlements, social exclusion and the inability of municipalities to provide basic infrastructure to urban poor households. However, despite these bold interventions by government, the study demonstrates that the provision of low-cost housing can be viewed as a wicked problem. Wicked problems are described to be “ill-defined, ambiguous, and associated with strong moral, political and professional issues”. The study, therefore, concludes that given the complexities surrounding the provision of low-cost housing in South Africa, the government’s ambitions to resolve housing backlogs by 2014 appear to be a far-fetched dream.

A Research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of the Built Environment in Housing, October 2019 / Understanding the proliferation of informal settlements in South Africa is significant because they have been a feature of our landscape for many years and will continue to be in the future in spite of the attention given to the issue of housing by the government through various housing delivery interventions. Studies have indicated that informal settlements provide shelter for a large number of people who are the poor urban dwellers. There are gaps in literature that demonstrate the distinction between informal settlements within the South African context, despite years of research conducted on informal settlements. The differentiation of informal settlements contests the homogeneity of informal settlements that fall into groupings and sub-categories that require targeted interventions specific to their contexts. The Housing Development Agency (HDA, 2012) “is mandated to assist organs of State with the upgrading of informal settlements”. One of its key activities is to profile informal settlements, particularly in mining towns, in order to understand the data “relating to the number of informal settlements, profile of residents, length of stay, aspirations, income groups, education status” (HDA, 2012:12). Using this set of distinctions, this research aimed to understand the characteristics, dynamics and nature of the Waterworks informal settlement and where it lies within the bigger narrative of informal settlements. It therefore investigated the settlement’s demographics, history, the reason for its existence, how it is understood by its residents, how it is understood in relation to scholarly articles and how it could be understood through government plans. / PH2020

Thesis (MTech (Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / Low-cost housing is always an important / a weighty topic for discussion in South Africa and the construction or occupation of such houses often makes media headlines. The media usually raises the negative aspects of such housing, for instance, the fact that these houses are sometimes poorly constructed, or that the administration systems for allocating such houses to their new owners are often faulty, or that physical access to them is limited, particularly for people with disabilities, and that social interactions among the inhabitants of these houses is often problematic. It therefore appears that the ‘design for all’ – or ‘Universal Design’ – approach has not been considered during the design phases of these developments. Although Universal Design is not a new concept, the South African National Building Regulations has a section specially for creating physical access, but it is not widely practiced or implemented in South Africa, let alone with the local housing sector. There is general lack of awareness, technical know-how for the implementation and a lack of enforceable penalties for non-compliance with this specific section of the Building Regulations (SANS 10400 Part S of 2011). This study aims to investigate some of the socio-technical issues that have arisen in the low-cost housing sector, by specifically focusing on informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa. During the period of apartheid, pre-1994, population groups in South Africa were segregated into separate residential areas; the aftermath of this is still prevalent, as is the continued exclusion of marginalized groups within the low-cost housing sector. Data was collected through interviews with various people within the professional sector including Architects, experts in Universal Design and people from organisations that specialise in the planning/design/construction of low-cost Housing in Cape Town, focusing on the lack of a more community orientated design approach that utilises the principles of Universal Design as well as Universal Access building audits. Such audits were conducted on houses and communities that were constructed prior to 2004, on houses and communities that were designed and constructed after the passing of the Breaking New Ground (BNG) policy (2010), as well as on proposed new housing designs that were being considered for the future construction. The audits looked at general circulation spaces, community involvement, sustainability and means of construction. On the basis of these highlighted elements, in conjunction with the tender requirements of low-cost housing, and the findings of the interviews / National Research Foundation

Thesis (MTech (Construction Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / The study investigates the effectiveness of quality assurance systems in the delivery of low-cost houses in Cape Town South Africa. As an endeavor to deliver adequate social housing in Cape Town‟s disadvantaged and underdeveloped communities, the study is aimed at ensuring that National Housing Code as set by Department of Human Settlement concerning the overall resultant quality of houses constructed is adhered to. There are several studies on resultant quality and quality assurance of low-cost houses (LCH) in the entire country, of which skill inadequacy has been highlighted as the major concern. This is because of the sluggish improvement in quality of the low-cost houses constructed. However, skill inadequacy of construction workers has been reported in developed and developing countries, and consequently poorly impacts on the delivery of low-cost house construction projects. The human resource (labour) is the significant tool to adequate use of materials and plant for the achievement of the project objectives. The study identified six objectives directed towards establishing an instrument that will ensure appropriate application of quality assurance systems in the delivery of low-cost house construction, hence improving the resultant quality of low-cost houses being constructed. The first objective identifies the existence, prevalence and depth of the poor resultant quality in low-cost housing areas; the second objective identifies the quality assurance systems in current use in construction of low-cost housing; the third objective evaluates the extent to which the existing quality assurance systems used assist in current low-cost housing construction; the fourth objective evaluates the effectiveness of quality assurance systems in current use; and fifth objective determines whether the poor resultant quality is the consequence of poor application of the system or the lack of knowledge from the professionals involved. Finally, the last objective is to establish the mechanism to ensure the effective use of quality assurance systems in the construction of low-cost houses. The research adopted a mixed methodological approach, with a use of quantitative questionnaires completed by beneficiaries and structured qualitative interviews conducted with the building inspectors, contractor and designer. The research questionnaires were designed to understand the perceptions of beneficiaries on the day to day structural performance of their houses. The structured interviews were designed to understand the knowledge of building inspectors, the contractor and the designer about the quality assurance systems and their applications in the delivery of low-cost houses, In the main study, one hundred (100) questionnaires were administered and hand- delivered to all three areas identified as Delft, Khayelitsha and Langa. Seventy three (73) questionnaires (73%) were duly completed, returned and analysed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. The key findings included the use of unskilled workmanship, limited knowledge of quality assurance systems by the building inspector, contractor and designer, and inappropriate procurement systems as well as benchmarking used. This thesis is both theoretical and practical research and is limited to books relevant to quality assurance and quality of low-cost houses and data retrieved from interviews and questionnaire surveys. The selection criteria for inspectors should incorporate skill in quality assurance. The National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) criteria for appointment of contractors to carry on works should not be just a saying but also be put into practice. It should also at least refer to three previous completed projects to ensure the profile of the contractor is in accordance with the statutory requirements of NHBRC.

<p>In this report, housing development and perticipation of communities are examined. Although houses have been build in certain areas of Khayelitsha , there is a slow delivery and there is a lack of public involvement in housing programme to decide about the future of the community. In order for any development to be sustainable it must be driven by affected people with a sense of ownership being engendered to them. This holistic approach for housing development is in line up with the current government policy on the matter.</p>

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Building / The increasing housing backlog in Gauteng has resulted in many challenges, amongst them a need in ensuring that there is a fair and transparent allocation of housing opportunities to communities. The City of Johannesburg is an accredited municipality and administers the housing process within its jurisdiction. The purpose for the accreditation of municipalities was to deal with the backlog and improve on housing delivery. The research examines the allocation process of Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses at the City of Johannesburg municipality. The study looked at the South African housing history, policies, and factors affecting the process with a view to highlight methods to improve the process. The qualitative approach to research was adopted in collecting data. Using the techniques of process mapping, data was collected through qualitative interviews and semi-structured questionnaires with key personnel at the municipality to develop a process map of the municipality’s allocation process. Through this process related issues contributing to backlogs and delays, and problems in the administration of the process were identified. Adopting a business process improvement tool could assist in improving the process and addressing the backlog issue. Keywords: Allocations, RDP houses, Processes, Backlogs and Business Process Improvement.