ONGWEDIVA – Namibia is still battling to reduce its housing backlog of 300 000 in order to ensure that close to one million people living in informal settlements get decent housing.
Urban and rural development minister Peya Mushelenga said there are currently 945 919 people living in 285 informal settlements across the country.
At present there is an estimated 216 250 households in the informal settlements.
Although government through its housing partners continues to build houses for the apparent low-income group, Mushelenga said 70 percent of those in the informal settlements are from the low-income categories that cannot access credit from financial institutions.
“More than often we are forgetting this income group or we are not doing enough to cater for them in our land and housing projects. Let’s cater for this income group through the Build Together Programme and Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia’s (SDFN) housing scheme,” said Mushelenga.
The revelations were made at the handing over of 50 houses at Okahao on Wednesday.
The houses were constructed by the National Housing Enterprise.
To date 3 958 housing units were constructed while a further 1 139 houses under SDFN are currently under construction.
Of the houses under construction, 133 are expected to be completed and occupied by the last day of December this year.
The minister also appealed to the NHE to ensure that the houses handed over on Wednesday are occupied by 20 December this year.
So far only 16 of the houses are occupied.
In addition to the 50 houses, the Okahao town council has further availed serviced land for the construction of 70 houses.
Furthermore, the town council plans to allocate 50 serviced plots to the SDFN.
A further 22 serviced plots have been allocated to the Build Together Programme, while 20 serviced plots have been provided to local developers.
During the 2020/2021 financial year the council will allocate 78 serviced plots at Extension 9 to individuals on the council’s waiting list.