Johannesburg Executive Mayor Amos Masondo addresses the media

The Europa Hotel ONCE a haven for crime, drug abuse and prostitution, Hillbrow's Europa Hotel offers refuge to the city's homeless and those in dire need. A prototype, the Europa - a 70 unit, six-storey building - offers temporary relocation premises for low-income earners and is also an emergency shelter. It was officially reopened in October 2005 after a R6-million refurbishment, managed by the Johannesburg Property Company under the auspices of the Better Buildings Programme. The Better Buildings Programme is aimed at fixing up "slums". Through the programme buildings are identified where the arrears owed in rates exceeds the market value of the building. Potential investors are then approached and help is given to ease the way for the investors to redevelop the particular building. There are currently 144 buildings identified by the Better Buildings Programme for rejuvenation. The project spin-off is to draw investment back into the inner city and to reverse the declining state of properties in the CBD. The Europa, situated on the corner of Claim and Smit Streets in Hillbrow, is one such project. It is the first joint project between the City and the Madulamoho Housing Association and serves as a model for future communal housing and emergency shelter facilities in the inner city. RELATED LINKS: Twelve die in inner city blaze A DERELICT factory building, home to about 200 people, caught fire in the early hours of the morning. Twelve people were killed and about 33 injured. Read more Integrated Development Plan 2005/06 The Integrated Development Plan is a guiding framework for the City of Johannesburg's development priorities. Read more Joburg moves in on derelict buildings THE city has launched two programmes to give buildings around the city a facelift and to demolish those found to be structurally deficient. Read more Evictions - between a rock and a hard place A RECENT judgment has put the problem of inner city housing for the poorest of the poor squarely in the spotlight. Perhaps the time has come for an inner city housing indaba for the public and private sector to come up with some workable solutions. Read more

The Europa will serve as temporary accommodation

Fire brings economic growth to the fore The mayor has urged all stakeholders to work together to overcome challenges to sustainable economic growth and to find solutions to the housing crisis. March 30, 2006 By Ndaba Dlamini FOLLOWING the death of 12 people in a fire in a derelict inner city building, Executive Mayor Amos Masondo has called on all spheres of government and civic organisations to join hands to deal with issues of sustainable economic growth and development in Johannesburg. The incident, in the early hours of Wednesday, 29 March, had made the planned Growth and Development Summit, on the agenda at a five-day Mayoral Lekgotla in Vereeniging, more urgent, according to Masondo. The mayor, his new mayoral committee and senior City officials are meeting to discuss the way forward during their five-year term. The incident also made it even more urgent to draw up a social contract involving key stakeholders to regulate challenges of this nature. Masondo said the City was calling on the judiciary, human rights lawyers, church leaders, civil society and the government to discuss the vision and policy of the Growth and Development Strategy and its implications for the residents. "The discussions will help to improve the quality of life of every individual in the city and avoid further loss of life." Saying one death was one too many, Masondo sent his condolences to the families, friends and relatives of the deceased and wished those injured in the fire a speedy recovery. The fire, which gutted a two-storey dilapidated building, left 33 people injured and many homeless. Temporary shelter, food and blankets have been given to the survivors. The people are believed to have been staying in the building illegally, according to City officials. Masondo said the government was committed to enforcing efforts to find a solution to the challenges of the illegal occupation of property and using essential services illegally. In the meantime, the City of Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) has made available facilities at the Europa Hotel, in Hillbrow, to assist people made homeless in the fire. According to JCP, this is the first time since being renovated and relaunched as a transitional housing facility that the Europa will be used for one of its intended purposes. The Europa Hotel has been refurbished and reopened The Europa forms part of a City plan to assist people in desperate situations such as fires. Under the plan people are given short-term help with accommodation, food and other basic amenities. "This is part of JPC's contribution in assisting to accommodate people left homeless under various emergency situations and is the first step towards providing a more permanent solution to this vexing problem," said the project manager of the JPC's Better Buildings Programme, Geoff Mendelowitz. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za