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New policy will aid families headed by kids
IOL Website
2005-04-20

Child-headed and other vulnerable families would be assisted by an HIV and AIDS housing policy launched on Tuesday, the Gauteng government said.


The social development department in Gauteng reports there are 2 402 child-headed families in Gauteng, Godfrey Tsotetsi, chairperson of the Gauteng legislature's committee on housing, said at the launch. The policy provided for child-headed families and other vulnerable households such as those headed by the elderly to be assisted by municipalities and the health and social development departments in coping with the disease and in day-to-day activities. Decisions on how to allocate shelter services and care requirements of such families would be jointly taken by the affected families and the departments.

We have come to realize that HIV and AIDS not only ravages households, but also disrupts the socio-economic system of the country, Tsotetsi said. He said among the policy's objectives was ensuring programmes initiated by the department were compatible with the needs of housing beneficiaries affected by HIV and AIDS. Under the housing plan, houses would be built so that those infected and affected by HIV and Aids were near to health care and schools, had water and sanitation and access to community support and home-based care.

It leads to low productivity at the shop floor level, robs families of breadwinners by rendering them economically inactive thus compounding the problems of poverty, he said. The policy looks at long-term housing solutions providing housing for those infected by HIV and AIDS and the families who need to help them survive and to continue to live after the infected have died, Liz Floyd of the health department said at the launch. Floyd's work included co-operating with all the provincial housing departments and civil society on HIV and AIDS issues.

With 15 percent of the Gauteng population HIV-positive, the provincial housing department said it was critical to form a housing sector response to HIV and AIDS.

(Source: IOL Website, April 19, 2005)

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