Facilitate Access to Government Resources

Informal Settlement Department Contacts

The government can provide many resources to communities. In our experience, government resources and processes were widely underused and or unknown in the communities we worked with. Getting in touch with government departments to identify their resources can be a long and frustrating process. However, digging to find this information, then educating the community and providing them access to these resources can make a big difference in the community’s lives.  Three main topics for working in informal settlements include contacts within the Informal Settlements Department, government issuance of identification cards, and government grants. Listed below are the steps and people to contact to go through the process quicker.

Government Issuance of IDs

Identification numbers have an important role in the current reblocking process. In the instance that community members cannot afford to make a monetary contribution, they have the opportunity to contribute in the construction. The community members contributing in this manner must have their identification numbers and books in order to participate. Therefore, our team attempted to provide the community members in need of ID numbers and booklets with the resources to get these issued to them.

Issuing IDs can be a tough task. The best way to handle this situation is to contact Home Affairs with the help of City sponsors. Reference the resource binder, for further information.

To see more information you can visit the home affairs website here

For additional ID information you can also look at our Resource Binder for Flamingo Crescent

Government Grants

There are eight types of grants that the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) offer- Care Dependency, Child Support, Disability, Foster Child, Grants-in-Aid, Older Persons, Social Relief of Distress, and War Veteran’s grant. You can click on the following link to see all the requirements for each grant listed.

You can also visit the SASSA website here to find more information. PDF versions of each grant can be found by visiting the website>publications> grant booklets.