The City of Cape Town’s Human Settlements Directorate has taken the initiative and implemented a Housing Consumer Education(HCE) Programme to assist first time owners in their new roles as homeowners, so that they can be empowered as title deed holders.
To date more than 4 000 housing beneficiaries have been trained, mainly in areas where new housing projects were delivered.
The number of qualified trainers increased to 45, when 25 trainers received a certificate of competence at an award ceremony at the Athlone Stadium.
Recently the Human Settlements Directorate was joined by the Water and Sanitation and Solid Waste Management Departments to conduct training in the new settlement areas being focused on e.g, Ocean View, Atlantis, Brown’s Farm and Phillipi.
“The main objectives of the HCE Programme are to inform all existing and new homeowners/tenants about the government’s role in housing provision and to ensure that they understand their rights, duties, responsibilities and obligations working in partnership with government. This is in line with our goal of being a Caring City ”, said Councillor Tandeka Gqada, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements.
The HCE Programme includes these topics: finance and savings, tenure options, housing subsidies, buying and selling a house, responsibilities of homeowners, sanitation and hygiene, HIV/Aids Awareness, drawing up a will, maintenance of the property, consequences of a breach of contract, water management device and how to take care of your bin.
“We also plan to go out to tender in June 2013 to appoint an external service provider to assist with the updating of our training manuals to include such topics as waste management, water and energy saving measures, recycling etc. This will be done in collaboration with the City’s Environmental Resource Management Department”, said Cllr Gqada
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