Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille (second from left) handed over keys for new homes in Pella yesterday. Photos: City of Cape Town and Facebook

Ten families from Pella in Atlantis received the keys to their new homes yesterday. Amongst the recipients were the elderly, people with disabilities and some indigent residents who had been living on land adjacent to Klein Dassenberg Road for many decades. 

Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille handed over the keys to the beaming new home owners. According to a statement released by De Lille, “the R19,6 million project will deliver homes for 180 families once completed in August 2018.”

The City of Cape Town subsidised the homes for the 180 beneficiaries for the construction of a two-bedroom house with an open-plan kitchen, dining area and a bathroom with a basin and bath. Contractors are in the process of completing 10 homes for residents with disabilities. These will have wheelchair ramps, wider doors, and modified bathrooms to suit their needs.

According to De Lille, “the community was in control of constructing their own homes. The beneficiaries appointed their own service providers and procured building material for constructing their homes.” The project is moving at a great pace as construction started only in June 2017. The houses are being handed out in phases and beneficiaries will move in every month until the project is completed.

The property on which the houses are being built was previously owned by the Moravian Church, before pockets of the land were transferred into the names of the beneficiaries by the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development more than 10 years ago.