Housing options for lower-income people
Sunday Times - Property People earning less than R1,500 month, qualify for a government housing subsidy to the value of R36,528, which is the cost of building a RDP house. To buy a similar house, it would cost about R100,000 Buli Gotyana lives in a shack in Seaview, near Port Elizabeth. She had an RDP house, but had to vacate it when it was found she had been incorrectly assigned the tiny home in Greenbushes. At the time, she was six months pregnant and the stress of having to return to shack life – without electricity and having to collect water from the community tap – concerned her. She had no idea how she would look after her new baby in this kind of environment. Nevertheless, she was able to buy a used shack for R400 and after her baby son was born in October she settled into motherhood in her new home – determined that her child would have the best she could give. Buli decided to approach her employers for help in finding out how she could buy or build a small house in her area.