The City of Johannesburg’s Housing MMC Mlungisi Mabaso is on a mission to tackle housing segregation across the city.
This comes after Mabaso turned the sod for the Long Street Social Housing project to officially kick-start the construction of a R1.6 billion social housing project led by Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco).
The city’s project is aimed at responding to the need for decent and affordable residential units in the inner city.
The development is located at Extension 38, along the mining belt on Main Road in Jeppestown. The housing stock will consist of one-bedroom and two-bedroom communal rental units.
This will entail the construction of 1 336 units of four-storey walk-up blocks to accommodate mixed-income households with gross income ranging from R3 500 to R15 000 per household a month.
Mabaso said this development in Jeppestown was the beginning of a new era.
“It gives me a great pleasure to be among you today to officiate the beginning of what will go down in history as a mega project that was initiated in my time.”
Mabaso said the objective of such projects was to address housing demand and promote the establishment of well-managed, quality rental options for the residents.
“The development in Jeppestown is part of the city’s turnkey projects, which aim to address the lack of affordable housing in the city. This is our humble contribution to the people of Johannesburg and changing people’s lives for the better.”
Mabaso pleaded with residents to own and protect such projects, saying this was a massive breakthrough for residents in the city.
“With this kind of investment, we are projecting that thousands of job opportunities will be created and in this project, alone a minimum of R67m will be set aside for local small, medium and micro enterprises.”
Source: ioL
