Some people have complained that the housing subsidy is too little and that the houses that are built are too small. This is an important area where development workers can help communities to build better quality houses.

Some ways to do this include:

• Organising unemployed people and especially women to form people’s housing organisations and contacting non-governmental organisations that can help the community with a people’s housing process

• Members can contribute their labour free of charge and help each other to build bigger and better houses
• Organising collective ways to buy building materials so that they are cheaper
• Setting up savings schemes so that banks are prepared to lend the community extra money to build better houses. This can be done by opening a group account at a bank. The group will have to get a name, a constitution, and select a chairperson and treasurer

Organisations and development workers can also help with problems in housing projects. For example, there have been some instances where communities have reported corruption in housing projects such as:

• Corrupt officials who take bribes to move people higher up the housing waiting list
• Corrupt developers who take the housing subsidy but do not complete building the houses or build houses which do not comply with building standards
• Community members who illegally occupy new houses before a development is completed so that the people for whom the houses were built cannot move in
• People who lie about their income and get subsidies to which they are not entitled

Here are some things you can do to assist in solving these problems:

• Use the housing hotline to report the matter to the Department of Human Settlements on 0800 203 271 (0800 204 401)
• Report the matter to the MEC for housing or the mayor
• Monitor the construction of local housing projects and make sure that all contractors are registered with the National Home-Builders Registration Council and all new houses are enrolled under the Defect Warranty Scheme
• Make sure that all new houses built by developers are at least 30 square meters
• If houses have defects within the first year of construction, the construction company can claim from the Defect Warranty Scheme and fix these defects