Challenges and opportunities in the management of social housing: a case study of Garena Rental Village, Polokwane Local Municipality

Abstract

Social housing has become one of the most popular programmes for housing provision to urban communities in South Africa. There is an upsurge of evidence in South Africa that reveals that there are challenges related to management of the social housing stock. The succession of protests when tenants complain about poor maintenance of social housing as well as the protests against municipalities for cutting off basic services to nonpaying tenants is evidence of these challenges. In many cases there seem to be no clear role division between tenants and social housing institutions that are legally approved to manage social housing. Social housing institutions’ main functions, among others, are to promote the creation of quality living environments for low income residents and to inform residents on consumer rights and obligations in respect of the Social Housing Act of 2008. This study acknowledges that during the management of social housing stock there are challenges and also opportunities that come to the fore during the process.

This is because one has to deal with people with various kinds of problems and different kinds of situations and this requires a well-coordinated and well organised management styles (SALGA and CMRA, 2012:21). This study aims to determine the challenges and opportunities existing in the management of social housing using the Garena Rental Village (GRV) case study in Polokwane Local Municipality. The research will further establish the extent to which housing institutions responsible for managing GRV, as well as the tenants are exercising their functions to ensure proper management of GRV. Consequently appropriate intervention strategies that can be used to help in managing GRV will be explored. The main research question explores the challenges and opportunities in the management of Social Housing stock. The research is expecting to discover the various challenges that social housing institutions encounter in managing social housing as well as challenges which tenants are faced with. Finally, the research will investigate such opportunities as exist in the management of Social Housing.