South Africa’s poverty alleviation strategy through housing: chasing the 2015 millennium development goal’s pragmatic?

Abstract

Section 26(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 grants everyone the right to have access to adequate housing. In terms of Section 26(2), it is the government’s duty to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right. This paper critically evaluates the extent to which housing to the poor, the unemployed and the homeless contributes to the government’s poverty alleviation strategy and also how the provision of housing to these categories of people will help the government in meeting its MDGs targets. The paper also engages the challenges which the country is facing since 1994 in delivering housing to the poor.