Abstract
This paper presents findings on the effectiveness of the South Africa government housing subsidy scheme in the delivery of houses to its citizens, thus providing homeownership especially to the low-income group and the disadvantaged poor. The paper also evaluates the usage of the houses by the occupants. The results from the post-occupancy survey of the provided houses revealed that the progressive realization of housing for the low-income and disadvantaged groups is being met as all beneficiaries were South African citizens. The survey also revealed that the beneficiaries living in the subsidized houses were originally allocated the houses by the Gauteng Department of Housing (GDOH), which oversees housing allocation in the province adopted as the site for the study. However, from those originally allocated, it was indicated that some of the beneficiaries were previously living in shacks, while some were homeless (absolute homelessness). Further findings from the survey showed that the original intended use of the houses by the government (private residential use) is what the subsidized houses are being used for as revealed by the respondents. This paper starts with an overview of the literature on this topic and the importance of homeownership, and then presents the results of the analysis and findings of the research. Finally, the paper draws some conclusions and makes recommendations. The originality of this paper is based on the fact that there have been issues surrounding the South Africa government's financial commitment of 5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is grossly inadequate to overcome its huge housing backlog. Due to the limited study to substantiate if the little devoted GDP is making any impact on the disadvantaged group, the current research contributes to this body of knowledge.