On 31 January 2025, the long awaited White Paper for Human Settlements was gazetted. As far back as 2015, the Department of Human Settlements recognised that the legislative and programmatic framework for human settlements was not making the desired inroads into changing apartheid spatial inequality and providing housing opportunities to the vast majority of South Africans who live in conditions of informality and whose rights to adequate, dignified housing remain unrealised.

The White Paper identifies consolidated backlogs, rapid population growth, climate-related disaster risks, intervening events such as Covid-19, declining budget allocations, weak private market offerings for affordable housing, inadequate institutional capacity to deliver, and issues of crime and corruption as key reasons for the disjuncture between policy and programmatic intent and practice.

Despite initial gains in the roll-out of RDP homes for economically vulnerable communities there has been both a decline in the delivery of housing (top-structure delivery) as well as the provision of serviced sites to facilitate incremental self-build housing construction. The reality is that the state cannot meet housing demand with the current rate of supply. The result is manifested in poorly located and inadequately serviced informal settlements, underserviced backyard structures in townships and occupied inner city accommodation, all of which are often unsafe and non-compliant with building regulations – yet are the only self-help solution for many to meet their housing need.

A key concern relating to existing human settlement programming is its failure to respond to the reality of informality and to accommodate informality as an integral part of forward-planning. Two policy shifts in the White Paper seek to address this weakness. First is the recognition that there has been an historical emphasis on the delivery of housing as a product as opposed to a focus on creating dignified human settlements. The White Paper recognises that sustainable human settlements must be comprised of physical elements (infrastructure, services, and housing); land use patterns; operational and governance relations; and, socio-economic patterns. To facilitate this, the White Paper has included directives to ensure the creation of integrated human settlements through Managed Land Settlement, premised on facilitating the release of well-located land and serviced sites to enable communities, through self-build processes, to realise their own housing need. Secondly, and to accomplish this, the White Paper fundamentally acknowledges a shift from the state as the primary provider of housing to that of a partnership or ‘whole of society’ approach. Sector departments, municipalities, public sector entities, civil society, the private sector and communities and residents are all called upon to play an active role in realising human settlement priorities.

The White Paper therefore emphasises a targeted approach to providing housing (top structure) to limited designated vulnerable beneficiaries who cannot realise their own housing need, with an overall emphasis on facilitating self-build/ self-help mechanisms for the rest of the population. This requires programming and support that is nuanced, targeted and sustainable to address and accommodate the diverse spectrum of informality and housing typologies.

Two programmatic interventions in the White Paper seek to accomplish this. In the context of informal settlement upgrading, the White Paper propositions that institutional, technical, planning, tenure and procedural mechanisms for participatory and incremental informal settlement upgrading will be implemented in-situ, wherever possible. A revision of the National Building Norms and Standards will allow for greater flexibility and incremental development without comprising on safety. Institutional and financial support in the form of different subsidy products like building vouchers and/or financial assistance will be provided. Building on historical practices, upgrading processes will include social compacts with communities and partnerships with civil society organisations (CSOs) to provide technical support and to act as facilitators/implementers in upgrading processes. CSOs will receive funding in order to sustainably fulfil this role.

The White Paper also recognises the importance of strengthening the rental sector to provide affordable rental housing opportunities. Small-scale affordable rental housing, and in particular backyard housing, has been shown to consistently provide housing opportunities, at times even eclipsing current government programming. The White Paper proposes to create an over-arching framework for affordable rental housing, including an informal rental housing programme designed to offer affordable rental accommodation (on a serviced slab) and have access to basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity. The White Paper acknowledges the importance of facilitating access to basic services for tenants and promoting the development of dignified accommodation through instruments such as rebates, incentives for property developers and landlords, and simplified regulatory processes.

It is crucial to acknowledge that in the absence of direct housing provision, the State cannot relinquish its constitutional duty to support and enable communities to realise their housing rights. CSOs have advocated for the establishment of Housing Support Centres to provide a range of supportive services to poor and low-income communities. The White Paper includes a provision to establish Local Housing/Transactional Support Centres to support and enable self-build initiatives, and provide consumer education and property transactions support, in partnership with the private and non-profit sector.

There is no doubt that the White Paper contains a range of ambitious policy directives and commitments, which will need to be operationalised. However, this is easier said than done. The National Department for Human Settlements will have to leverage intersectoral and intergovernmental relations to achieve this. Multi-stakeholder partnerships have to be carefully curated, strategically developed and strengthened to achieve self-sustaining outcomes and partnerships. Crucially, commensurate financial grant commitments must be made to sustain programming.

The White Paper represents the starting point for crafting a new human settlements approach. It is thus important to have a clear understanding of how the attendant processes related to the review of the Housing Act as well as the development of a new Human Settlements Code will unfold. Giving effect to the White Paper in the context of these processes is where the real substantive work will take place. The proposed establishment of a National Stakeholder Forum for multi-stakeholder consultations is crucial in this respect and hopefully one of the immediate actions taken by the Department.

It is crucial that the responsiveness and partnership approach espoused in the White Paper is given teeth in practice. History has taught us that once programmes are implemented, there has been little room to influence or implement necessary changes to ensure better programmatic outcomes. We urge a collaborative approach that leverages the knowledge, innovation and experience of different stakeholders to achieve sustainable and dignified human settlements for all.