Christmas will come early in Dunbar

People living in both Dunbar communities will have a good Christmas season as the Department of Housing has approved 1 500 subsidies for the construction of fully-serviced starter units in the area.

The team that has been involved in resettling people
from the Dunbar communities to the Booth Road housing
project celebrated the successful completion of the task on time.

The project manager for this development, Lawrence Pato, informed IZWI that ten show houses in the Chesterville Café vicinity are currently under construction to allow residents to comment.

The ten show units include a free-standing unit, a semi-detached unit, a double storey unit for members of the same family and a double storey unit for four families.

Protest march
Although some members of the community staged a protest march to the Ward 30 councillor’s office regarding the construction of double storey units, the developers will go ahead with the units as their aim is to accommodate as many people as possible in the development.

“Although the double storey units look small and are going to cause all sorts of problems among those who will be allocated them, we understand that the demand (population) far exceeds the supply (land scarcity). Some of us understand that we do not really have a choice because the allocation procedure is according to the first-come-first-served basis,” said Noziwe Nteshana a resident in New Dunbar.

Preference for established residents
Preference for the free-standing units will be given to the people who settled in the area early and who are in the register.

To open up the densely populated settlements of Old and New Dunbar, approximately 415 families have been relocated to the newly established Booth Road project. Efforts will now be concentrated on the provision of potable water, tarred roads and electricity to Old and New Dunbar.

Relief for tenants in arrears

Tenants who can no longer afford their rates and rentals have been offered a lifeline by eThekwini’s Exco for housing arrears. These tenants will now be housed in affordable dwellings using the maximum government housing subsidies.

This will be an alternate option to evictions. The move was taken because the council’s rental arrears in its various housing projects is at an all time high. It currently stands at R30 million and stands at R13.5 million in the metro region, despite several reminders to tenants.

“The Council is mindful of the fact that unemployment is high. It is in this context that the Council has provided an alternative to tenants. To provide further relief, the Council has agreed to write off any arrears accumulated as at June 1999. This is intended to afford them an opportunity to settle the balance of arrears over 36 months. If tenants can’t pay, they will be offered the alternative option,” said a Council spokesperson.

Tenants will be given access to opportunities close to their abode. The housing opportunities will be given to them free of charge as long as they qualify in terms of the National Housing Policy. This qualifies them to receive six kilolitres of water per month for free. They will not have to pay any rental or rates as their properties will now be valued at less that

R30 000 and they will have access to the prepaid electricity system.

Tenants will also be afforded employment opportunities through the Council’s Poverty Alleviation programmes. The rehousing option is the first of its kind in the country.