A first for South Africa in terms of Housing Stock availability & development
In July 2012 the Housing Development Agency (HDA) was requested to support the National Association of Social Housing Organisations (NASHO). The overall objective of the partnership was to develop a database of all housing stock developed in South Africa, as well as other rental stock subsidised by government.
The intention was to map and track these social housing projects in South Africa and to provide the necessary information to support the analysis of the nature, extent and effectiveness of the investment in the sector. It was agreed that the HDA will allow NASHO to gain access to LaPsis (Land and Property Spatial Information System), and to assist the NASHO with training on how to use LaPsis and provide support for data analysis. Provision of information and regular updates of the database, would be NASHO’s responsibility.
Between July and September 2012, the HDA initiated the first phase, with the assistance of technology innovation company AfriGIS, by helping NASHO with mapping of the social housing projects in the Metros and surrounding areas. The relevant information and maps were presented at the ‘SH and Urban Regeneration’ provincial and national workshops.
(To read more visit http://www.thehda.co.za/uploads/images/HDA_NASHO_reseach_report_lo-res.pdf)
NASHO approached the HDA in June 2013 to assist in establishing the database on LaPsis. The user requirements of the database and the basic user specification, developed by AfriGIS, which guided the development of the database were discussed and detailed with the NASHO- and AfriGIS teams.
The database launch took place on 19 September 2013 the Sunnyside Park Hotel and was attended by all Social Housing Institutions CEO’s and support staff. The presentation comprised all functionalities, as well as supporting functionalities developed to capture a new record in an easy ‘spread sheet like’ form, to edit an existing record, show the record on a map, click on the pin on the map, and show basic information about the project, export the information to an Excel sheet and be able to show a pivot table in order to simplify the analysis of the information,
“The launch was very successful and all functionalities of the database worked flawlessly. The comments were very positive and people wanted to have access to the database as soon as possible. We are of the opinion that creating this database for NASHO, is only the first step towards building a database of all housing sector subsidised investment in South Africa”, comments Johan Minnie, Senior Manager: Land Geospatial Services at the HDA.
“AfriGIS is proud to be involved in the NASHO/HDA initiative to map and manage the database of the social housing projects in the Metros and surrounding areas”, says Charl Fouché, Operations Director AfriGIS.
Note: Pictures supplied courtesy of NASHO
About HDA
The Housing Development Agency (HDA) is a national public development agency established by an Act of Parliament (Act 23 of 2008). The HDA promotes sustainable communities by making well-located land and buildings available for the development of housing and human settlements. As an organ of state, the HDA is accountable through its Board to the Minister of Human Settlements.
