{"id":17338,"date":"2022-04-28T08:55:26","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T08:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/?p=17338"},"modified":"2022-04-29T08:56:12","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T08:56:12","slug":"reducing-barriers-to-entry-for-social-housing-shras-practical-approach-to-promoting-inclusive-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/reducing-barriers-to-entry-for-social-housing-shras-practical-approach-to-promoting-inclusive-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Reducing barriers to entry for social housing: SHRA\u2019s practical approach to promoting inclusive growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2022<\/em><\/strong>: South Africa\u2019s housing shortfall stands at approximately 2 million homes. At the same time, the country needs sustainable job creation as well as transformation. The social housing industry has the potential to contribute by supporting new and upcoming social housing institutions (SHIs) and helping them roll out new social housing developments. In light of this, the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA) has implemented new measures which will assist and support the new SHIs to enter the market, equipped with the right skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many opportunities for people in the social housing sector. With the SHRA\u2019s new Compliance Accreditation & Regulations operational framework, we are creating a more supportive, enabling and inclusive accreditation process for SHIs,\u201d explains Dewalt Koekemoer, Acting CEO of the SHRA.<\/p>\n

SHIs are non-profit companies that develop, own and manage affordable rental accommodation. They are accredited by the SHRA, to which they report on a regular basis. \u201cAfter informative stakeholder engagement sessions, we introduced the framework in June this year. It has enabled us to work more effectively and in closer collaboration with applicants,\u201d says Koekemoer.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the framework enables the SHRA to assist institutions to build their operations in a sustainable way. \u201cManaging a social housing project is no easy task. There are a lot of moving parts and always new challenges to overcome throughout the project lifecycle. Our policy provides support in a way that sets SHIs up for success,\u201d says Koekemoer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also aim to create more awareness of the social housing industry and promote the opportunities of this sector to the designated groups. We now spend more time investing in SHI applicants, training them, and fostering inclusive growth of the industry.\u201d These inclusive growth initiatives aim to share the success of social housing projects with the wider value chain of transformed sub-contractors. \u201cIt no longer is just about the project and the SHI \u2013 it is a bigger network that also considers all the role players involved, from cleaning crews to electricians and other subcontractors to security companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helping new entrants overcome challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

Koekemoer reports that many new SHIs have the same challenges \u2013 access to land, and access to debt funding. To assist with overcoming these issues, the SHRA has started working with municipalities and local government departments to ensure that accredited transformed entities can ultimately enter into partnerships with municipalities to facilitate land availability. \u201cYou cannot expect these new and upcoming SHIs to pay for land out of their pocket when it would be years before it starts generating income,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the SHRA\u2019s SHI incubation project is now also supported by the National Housing Finance Corporation (soon to be the Housing Development Bank) so that SHIs can be capacitated to qualify for debt funding.<\/p>\n

Finally, for SHI applicants who don\u2019t receive accreditation and where demand for social housing exists with limited delivery agents in those areas, there is a new pre-accreditation qualification category which helps these institutions build their capacity to a point where they can get accredited. \u201cThis means you will not be turned away if you don\u2019t meet our accreditation criteria. Our new CAR Operational Framework has helped us make strides to being an open and more transparent organisation that can embrace new entrants in the market,\u201d concludes Koekemoer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2022: South Africa\u2019s housing shortfall stands at approximately 2 million homes. At the same time, the country needs sustainable job creation as well as transformation. The social housing industry has the potential to contribute by supporting new and upcoming social housing institutions (SHIs) and helping them roll out new social housing developments. In light of this, the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA) has implemented new measures which will assist and support the new SHIs to enter the market, equipped with the right skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","category-shra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17339,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17338\/revisions\/17339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}