Proof that low-cost homes can be more than boxes
TOO often low-cost housing is simply about creating dwellings without giving thought to design and engineering. However, USAID is working with the housing department to create basic homes that are more than boxes.
In 1995, then-president Nelson Mandela announced a commitment to construct a million affordable homes in five years for low-income communities in SA. The achievement is dramatic, yet the typical low-cost houses are simple shelters of 30m² covered by corrugated zinc roofs, without insulation in the walls or ceilings, with no suspended ceilings, and windows that are not orientated to sunlight.
"Residents often find these houses scorching in summer and freezing in winter. To combat the cold, occupants generally pay high fuel costs to heat their homes with coal or paraffin. The resulting poor indoor air quality threatens family health, with children particularly vulnerable. Incidents of accidents and fire are high. These indoor fires also contribute to community-wide air pollution and global greenhouse gas emissions," says a spokesman for USAID.
Through the work of a number of local organisations, South Africa's housing department has begun to recognise this problem and the need to incorporate environmentally sound building principles. The need for enforced housing standards for energy and water efficiency, passive solar design and urban greening has been brought to the table. USAID's support to three organisations has yielded visible results.
The sustainable homes initiative (SHI), funded through a consortium of Eskom, the British foreign aid programme, SA's housing department and USAID, has built an ecofriendly demonstration house in the heart of Soweto.
Design and engineering assistance has been provided to more than 12 communities through the green professionals programme, influencing the design of 63000 houses to include north-facing windows, roof overhangs and ceilings.
Due in large part to input from SHI, Johannesburg has adopted a sustainable housing policy that will guide development of future housing in SA's largest city. The biggest urban renewal project in SA at Alexandra will incorporate ecodesign in 50000 houses planned for a community that is dominated by high-density shacks.
PEER Africa, a joint partnership between the US and South Africa, has worked with several communities to build more than 200 units of ecohousing.
In Guguletu in Cape Town, PEER helped four elderly citizens move out of tin shacks into their first real homes. The houses face north, are built with solid walls, ceilings, and roofs with overhangs, so cold and wet Cape winters cannot penetrate.
The first four family residents were so impressed with their houses that they worked tirelessly for the next two years to ensure that another 20 ecohouses were built for their neighbours.
Tens of thousands of houses and communities have been altered by these programmes. More importantly, expectations and policies have changed.
The housing department has incorporated sustainable housing design guidelines into the national housing subsidy programme. The national department has also agreed to support the development of an ecorating system that would rate building materials and designs based on their energy efficiency. About 10% of new housing stock in SA now incorporates environmentally sound features.
A national network of communities, professionals, private companies, and public officials continues to build a knowledge base and give access to technologies that can make lower income housing more comfortable and more environmentally friendly.
As a result, 21200kg of greenhouse gases a year are estimated to be avoided thus far.
Johannesburg has adopted an ecohousing policy and others are following.
