“I will finally have my own home,” said an excited and emotional Ottery resident Venessa Oncke.
On Friday 20 October, the grandmother attended the sod-turning of the City’s new R54,6 million housing project in Ottery.
The project comprises 116 Breaking New Ground (BNG) state subsidised houses and 10 First Home Finance and Subsidy assistance (FLISP) houses, with the first 30 expected to be completed by December and the rest by June next year.
Oncke, who has been living in a backyard her whole life, says she has been waiting for this moment for over two decades.
“We held church services on this field and prayed for this space because there was a lot of fighting up and down.
Many people did not believe that houses would be built but I believed and trusted in God. There is a need for housing in this community,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mayco member for human settlements Carl Pophaim said the support of the community had been absolutely critical.
“It is exciting for us to be in Ottery to turn sod at this new housing project. I am thrilled to see this project progress so that the qualifying beneficiaries can soon move into their new homes.”
He added that enhanced security and monitoring were implemented at the site to deal with “criminality and extortion threats” received earlier this year.
“When we all say enough is enough and stand together to fight criminality and extortion, we can make a big difference,” said Pophaim.
Subcouncil 18 chair Kevin Southgate said it was encouraging to see the progress made on the project.
“It’s been a long while coming and I’m looking forward to positive outcomes.
“The contractor has indicated that they will have 30 units finished by the end of the year and we are hoping that we can have 30 more families moving into new homes for Christmas.”
