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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Seven Buildings Project: Is Co-Operative Housing the Answer to South Africa's Housing Crisis |
Author: | Cull, Tracy |
Year: | 2001 |
Periodical: | Africa Insight |
Volume: | 31 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | March |
Pages: | 43-49 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | housing cooperatives housing policy Urbanization and Migration Development and Technology |
Abstract: | The challenge of providing housing for those in need in South Africa is exacerbated by the huge task of upgrading existing accommodation. An answer to these problems may be cooperative housing, a well-established form of tenure in other parts of the world but relatively unknown in South Africa. In 1996, the Gauteng Provincial Housing Board enabled the approximately 2,000 tenants of seven apartment buildings in Hillbrow, Joubert Park and Berea to become owners of the flats they were living in. This article describes the background to the Seven Buildings Project, its history, the way subsidies were allocated and recent developments. The lessons to be learned from this project are: education of tenants is essential; the smaller the cooperative housing project the better; the project should not be run by the tenants/residents/owners themselves but by an 'outside' agency; and housing projects cannot work in isolation. Ref. |