By JoNews Reporter
LANDLORDS and property managers are sweeping the cobwebs out of the inner city through an innovative project initiated by the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC).
Under the eKhaya Neighbourhood Programme, 26 landlords on Pietersen Street in the inner city have pledged to clean up the area, so making it safe for tenants and protecting their investments. The Johannesburg Property Company (Propcom) is attaching some of the remaining buildings as part of its Better Buildings Programme - a project created to reverse the area's degeneration.
The JHC, a social housing group, owns six Hillbrow buildings as well as several others throughout Johannesburg's inner city.
According to Dombolo Masilela, the JHC marketing and communications manager, much of Hillbrow had fallen into decline, which was "not conducive to supporting the redevelopment of a good residential and business environment".
Geoff Mendelowitz, of the Better Buildings Programme, said the City supported the eKhaya project and wanted to replicate it in other areas of the inner city. "We are fully on board and we are in the process of identifying and releasing bad buildings to investors. However, because of legal complications, some of them may take time. We are however, making good progress."
The JHC and other investors have been buying up vandalised, abandoned or illegally occupied buildings for renovation. Many individual buildings were being successfully managed and were increasingly sought-after for affordable, good rental accommodation, Masilela said.
"However, some adjacent buildings and their occupants still undermine the positive features of Hillbrow as a major residential area. Tenants are afraid to walk the streets," she added.
The eKhaya Neighbourhood Programme is made up of the JHC and the various property owners, as well as the Better Buildings Programme. Masilela said the stakeholders planned to register a Section 21 company to sustain the management initiative.
A steering committee has been set up to liaise with all the relevant partners. It will also find solutions for issues identified by interested parties, like a lack of children's or sporting facilities, open green areas and inadequate lighting. As part of the area management strategy, links have been forged with the Hillbrow Caretakers Forum and the South African Police Service's Community Sectoral Policing Forum.
Masilela said an opportunity existed for all roleplayers - the City, the South African Police Service, the Johannesburg Metro Police Department and councillors - to work with property owners to bring about the regeneration of Hillbrow. "These efforts are aimed at encouraging and sustaining the economic and social well-being of residents, workers and visitors.
"We want to see an investment node which attracts and protects the financial investment of individual home owners, large property owners, small and large businesses and financial institutions, as well as private and public investors," she said. These include schools, clinics, parks, libraries and religious organisations.
"We are certain that by the end of this year, there will be a great difference in the lives of residents and workers in this neighbourhood. The City alone cannot be expected to manage the area but now that property owners have signified their willingness to work together, we are almost certain there will be success," Masilela concluded.
JHC was set up in 1995 to create affordable rental housing in the inner city. To date it has established 1 842 refurbished housing units, providing accommodation for more than 4 000 people in 17 buildings across Johannesburg - from Troyeville and Jeppestown to Joubert Park and Hillbrow; in the CBD and in Newtown and Fordsburg.
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