The city of Johannesburg will in coming months table drafts on three new housing policies to guide processes in allocating reconstruction and development programme (RDP) houses, giving people serviced sites to build their own homes and providing temporary emergency accommodation to those in need, it said on Wednesday.
In a statement, member of the mayoral committee for housing Meshack Van Wyk said the council had held one of its final drives on Tuesday to bring the draft policies to residents.
"Residents came in their numbers to give input into these draft policies, which we expect to table in council within the coming months," he said, adding that better solutions like the council's inner city rejuvenation programme were needed in light of a housing backlog of 300 000 units in Johannesburg.
The ever growing housing need and increased demand for a permanent solution had resulted in a strong need to identify a diversified way to speed up delivery, Van Wyk said.
"To this affect, the allocations policy proposes that city move from ward based allocations to a first come first served basis. For applicants, this will finally deliver housing to people who have been waiting for over two decades. It also means residents can be allocated a house anywhere within the city and not based on where they currently reside," he said.
The draft policies aim to ensure greater transparency during the allocation process, denying criminals the opportunity of queue jumping, fraud and corruption.