EDITOR – Regarding the article on page 3 of last week's Berea Mail. I welcome this step as an important step to address the ongoing legacy of our divided past.
Apartheid spatial planning meant that people are living far from their places to work, and are dependent on unreliable, at times dangerous, and expensive public transport to get to work. I often speak to people working in Morningside who tell me how they have to get up at 3am or 4am to get to work on time. Then they have long travelling times back to their homes, meaning they get home late and have limited family time.
I thus support measures to address this, but, I hope the city has learned from the challenges faced by these types of projects across the world and will work pro-actively to address these challenges. For instance, I will discuss with the city how people currently working in the area should be given preference to this housing. Also, it should be family units to allow mothers and fathers to be with their children, so that we do not merely recreate the problems this country has faced numerous times with hostels.
The city should also liaise with schools in the area and the Department of Education. Schools in the area already report that they are filled up quite quickly and have long waiting lists. We need to ensure that we have adequate education, health and other resources available in the area to adequately serve any new residents as well as current residents in the area.
The city should also put measures in place to deal with the potential social ills that world wide seem to at times come with this type of social housing. Allocating social workers to serve these housing projects, security issues to ensure the residents living there are safe, and ample parks and recreation facilities for the youth are vital if projects like these are to work.
Finally, the DA continues to call on the city to start using transparent housing lists that people can easily access and follow to eradicate the ongoing corruption rampant in our housing department. Only with this in place will residents be assured that the housing is going to people in need, people who actually qualify for them.
But I must raise one serious concern.
The city seems unable or unwilling to adequately look after the rental housing stock it currently has, so what assurances are there the city will adequately manage new housing stock? Westgate Gardens, Kirkwood Gardens and Kenneth Gardens in Glenwood are good examples. The buildings are falling apart, grass is not being cut and services are not being provided. The city is even unable to say accurately who lives in the flats, the rate of rent payment is extremely low, and the city seems unable to address this issue. There are many illegal tenants and illegal subletting activities, meaning that the city is getting very little income from the flats. The city even gives this as a reason why they are not doing important work on the buildings.
So while I welcome attempts to address the housing issue in the inner city areas, the city can no longer afford to ignore the rental stock they already own, and must budget accordingly, and the city must also act decisively to address illegal activity in their current apartment buildings.
Councillor Martin Meyer
Ward 27
