February 22, 2007
By Ndaba Dlamini
IN a first for the country, an inclusionary housing development in which lower income earners will live side-by-side with more affluent homeowners, will be built at the Jerusalem site in Fairland, north-western Joburg.
Work on the inclusionary housing development will start in early July. It forms part of the Johannesburg Property Company's Jerusalem precinct; this includes the 13 000m² World Wear shopping centre, which opened in November 2006, and the 70 000m² Wesbank/FNB home loan head office, which is being built.
The R200-million housing project, an initiative of the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) and Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco), will comprise of 187 new housing units on 9,3 hectares of council-owned land.
"This is a ground-breaking development," says Alan Dinnie, a JPC project manager. "Never before in South Africa have lower and higher income earners been incorporated into the same complex, living side-by-side as neighbours. This is the next step in the South African miracle."
In terms of the development agreement with Crowzen, a private property developer, it will build 56 units as social housing units. These will be handed over to Joshco for rental to families earning between R3 500 and R7 000 a month.
Beneficiaries will be selected using Joshco's allocation policy, which includes giving preference to families living and working in the area of the development, according to Skhumbuzo Ndumdum, a housing development manager at Joshco.
The social housing units will be 55m² in size and will comprise of two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room. They will be rented out for between R1 500 and R2 000 a month; the 131 market-related units are expected to sell for more than R1,5-million each.
The rental housing units have been designed using the lekgotla concept, or open-plan living, where the living, cooking and dining spaces are integrated into one, according to Kim Fairburn, the architect. The bedrooms will be adjacent to this "meeting space".
Although a number of mixed income developments have been completed or are under way - most notably Cosmo City in northern Joburg - the Jerusalem inclusionary housing development is the first one to combine families of different economic levels in a single community.
"Poverty reduction is the primary goal of inclusionary housing," Dinnie explains. "Families from a disadvantaged background who are integrated into wealthier communities become exposed to higher aspirations, better services and more employment opportunities, and more affluent families are exposed to poverty in a personal way."
When the low cost housing concept was proposed to residents of Fairland and its surrounding suburbs in 2004, they resisted it as they felt that property values would be at risk. However, after a series of meetings between the JPC, Joshco and the Jerusalem Action Group (JAG), an action group established to stop any low cost housing development in Fairland, an amicable agreement was reached on development parameters for the site.
"We are fairly satisfied that the final proposals address the main concerns of the community with respect to the risk of property values and the retention of the atmosphere of our suburb and surrounding areas," says Deon Oberholzer, the chairman of the JAG.
"We are, however, keeping a careful watch on the process. The ongoing management of the development is going to be crucial and we want to make sure that this development is a success."
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