Here is an overview of the questions and answers that made up the discussion at the seminar on "Experiences in PHP" held in East London on 22 June 2007.

Afesis-corplan

(Q1)  What are the benefits of doing PHP through co-operatives?
(A1) You need to differentiate between housing (development) cooperatives H (D)C’s and Housing (property owning) co-operatives H(PO)C’s.  H (D) C’s provide a very useful vehicle through which communities can organise themselves to negotiate with government and others to get land, funding and technical support to get houses.  H (D) C’s fit very well within the governments PHP or Community Driven Housing Initiative (CDHI) programme. More thought and discussion is needed on how H (PO) C’s can support CDHI’s.  For example, access costs for land purchase can be kept lower for future members through restricted equity coop ownership.  Consideration needs to be given to using voluntary associations that subscribe to the cooperative values and principles rather than formally registering with the registrar of cooperatives.  This is particularly true for newer groups that have not yet developed the capacity to prepare audited financial books and other reporting requirements of formally registered coops.

(Q2) What lessons have been learnt from the more recent experiences of the Amalinda co-op housing project?
(A2) The lessons outlined in the presentation are available on our website (click here to read) and are based on recent experiences with co-operative housing in Amalinda.  One on one discussions need to be held to discuss some of the more detailed lessons relating to things like allowing some funds to be provided even before all members of the co-operatives have satisfied both the co-operatives and government’s qualification criteria for housing.

Federation of Urban and Rural Poor

(Q3) How does Fedup organise its savings?
(A3) Poor people can save.  They can reduce expenditure on smoking, drinking, etc and put aside what they save.  They can sell empty bottles. Each member has a savings book.  The money is collected through organised groups.  These could be special savings schemes set up for savings or existing stokvels, church structures, street committees, etc.  The scheme decides how they are going to organise.  They decide what banks to use, who collects the money, who will be the treasurer etc.  Savings groups must register their names at Fedup.  The savings is the members savings.  People can withdraw their savings if they need to buy groceries or buy a door or for any reason.  Members must attend meetings to see how much they and others have saved.   Savings meetings are also used to discuss other issues.   They decide what tasks need to be done like who must go to the municipality to negotiate for land.

(Q4) How does Fedup access funds through government?
(A4) In the past (in the late 1990’s) Fedup (called the homeless peoples federation at the time) received R10 million from government.  Federation members used this as a revolving loan.  People received loans from this fund to build houses and when the government subsidy was applied for and received the subsidy was used to write off the loan.   We are an organised group; we go to government and ask for things.  We show government that we can manage ourselves.  We have got support from other people (“peoples people”), who know how we work and what we want.  These supporters empower us so we can go to government and get money.  We have done it in the past and we are doing it again.

(Q5) What must I do to join Fedup?
(A5)  See above.  Fedup have an urban poor fund where each member contributes R750.  The persons name is put in a ‘pool’ of Fedup members, and they become a ‘shareholder’ of this fund with other Fedup members who have joined.  As ‘shareholders’ they can participate in discussions to decide how this fund is used.  People can borrow from the fund.  Professionals manage the fund.  Savings groups must develop their own constitutions and rules.  There is no overall constitution or body called Fedup.  All the savings schemes form part of the loose network that calls itself Fedup but it is not a formal organisation.

(Q6)  How are fedup programmes aligned with municipal IDP’s, and what are challenges of working with IDP’s?
(A6)  Fedup members participate in local IDP processes.  We co-operate with government.  However, often some politicians do not support people centred processes.  When they are elected they forget about the communities needs.   They see themselves as people who can tell the community what to do.

(Q7)  Can more than one person be part of savings from a household?
(A7) Yes, anyone can save in the schemes.  It’s up to the scheme to decide how they are organised.

(Q8)  Do people have to save fixed amounts or can they save more?
(A8) There are many ways to save.  The group decides what people can save.  People save for many different reasons (towards housing, towards school fees, etc).  People are not forced to save.  There are often break-ups in groups due to tensions in the group.  This is a challenge for us, but we have found that some groups leave Fedup and come back later when they realise what Fedup is doing.   Fedup provides ‘comfort’ for its members.

Development Action Group

(Q9) Which types of PHP projects have been more successful in the Western Cape, NGO or government driven?
(A9) You can’t have a successful PHP without the beneficiaries getting some form of support.  The support can be from local government, NGOs, provincial government or even the private sector.  No one group can do everything so therefore you have to draw in other groups to help.  We need to build each other’s capacities so we can all support communities.  There needs to be multi-party partnerships and not just one or another doing it by themselves.

(Q10) How do we integrate child headed households into PHP; and if a beneficiary dies, how do you accommodate children?
(A10) There are no ready-made answers.  This requires a separate discussion with people dealing more directly with these issues.

(Q11) How do savings work in projects DAG has been involved in?
(A11)  DAG have helped set up a separate savings organisation in the past.  This savings organisation is professionally run.  People must save for six months and they can then get a loan at a 1 : 3 savings to loan ration.  This approach has proven to be successful.  Communities need to organise and mobilise themselves so they can engage such savings organisations.  It is important for people to get into the culture of savings.

Amathole District Municipality

(Q12) What about rural housing?
(A12)  The ADM has developed a rural housing model but this seminar was about PHP so we focused on this.  Municipalities within the ADM have adopted the rural housing model developed by ADM.  Municipalities will have to submit applications for rural housing to provincial government.

(Q13) How can we get municipalities and provincial government involved and capacitate them; and make sure that all spheres are working together?
(A13) The IDP’s are an important tool to co-ordinate all departments and spheres of government.  It is up to communities to participate in IDP processes, and register as stakeholders in IDP processes with the local and district municipalities.  Municipalities have to regularly review their IDP’s so this is a chance for others (NGOs and CBOs) to participate and influence plans. IDP’s look at more than housing and the land reform plans within IDP’s look at settlement development more broadly as per the thinking behind the Department of Housing breaking new ground policy. 

National Department of Housing

(Q14) Did the PHP policy take into account the diversity of cultures and needs in the country?
(A14) The policy will not say what type of house must be built.  It is up to the community to decide if they want communal house, individual house or rural house.  The policy will not be detailed and will allow flexibility.  The question can also be turned around so that communities can tell government how to make sure the diversity of cultures is accommodated.

(Q15) PHP must be properly funded, there must not be any break in the chain from land, to bulk services to internal services to housing.  How will government ensure all these elements are properly funded?
(A15) National government is working towards integrating all their funding streams.  We all need to work creatively with procurement.  For example, procure the services of an NGO to offer support to community-based housing projects and the NGO then procure down to other actual service providers.  There needs to be accountability of how the government funds are spent but government does not have micro manage and control the entire process.

(Q16) Will the flexibility allowed in implementing community-based initiatives be clearly reflected in the new Community Driven Housing Initiative (CDHI) programme?
(A16) Yes.

(Q17) How can the National Department of Housing help set up children’s villages? (A17)  There is no national programme yet for this, but they do have special forum that is looking at street children and other special needs, that is engaging other government programmes that also deal with these special needs to see how housing can support what others are doing.  Kwa-Zulu Natal has had some good experiences with setting up children’s villages, and many lessons can be learnt from there.  The Eastern Cape Province is also looking into this.  People need to approach the municipality housing department to see what they can do.

(Q18) Will Community Driven Housing Initiatives (CDHI’s) improve the delivery rate of housing given the slow progress of PHP in the past?
(A18) CDHI will work if it is well structured and organised, but it will not solve the backlog by itself.  The Department of Housing is planning to increase the delivery of housing in the country from 250 000 units per year to 500 000 units per year.

(Q19) What is the National Department of Housing doing about rural housing?
(A19) There are people in the department dedicated to dealing with rural housing.  There was also a national conference on rural housing in East London about 1 month ago.  You can contact me (Odette Crofton) at the National Department and I will put you in contact with the people dealing with rural housing.

(Q20) How will be CDHI make sure that the quality of houses is good; and make sure builders come back and fix poor quality houses?
(A20)  This falls under blocked projects.  Tuberletu Homes is dealing with existing blocked projects.  There are rectification programmes and funding in all provinces dealing with this.

(Q21). How can the department help to make sure that community groups and NGOs actually speak to the local governments where they work?
(A21).  NGOs should partner with municipalities and provincial government.  NGOs should not try and do things by themselves.  One group should not try and control the other group.  They need to work in a form of partnership.

(Q22) How can communities deal with people who fail to understand why they have failed national database screening exercises?
(A22)  Beneficiaries need to understand that there are rules and they can’t be changed for who qualifies for a subsidy.  The social housing policy is being developed to allow some non-qualifiers to also rent through associations that receive subsidies.    The ADM will be able to visit projects to discuss how to deal with people who fail data base searches.