Four years of rental discounts for Communicare’s SASSA pensioners

For the fourth consecutive year, Communicare will be offering rental concessions to pensioners solely dependent on SASSA grants.

We are excited to open applications to all qualifying SASSA pensioners for rental concessions in 2020.

Communicare hand delivered concession forms to pensioners in each complex in our portfolio. The discounts will provide financial relief to all senior tenants who have no other form of income, besides their SASSA Older Person’s Grant.

Applications close on 18 November 2019 and can be emailed to rentalconcessions@communicare.org.za or hand delivered to our office in Pinelands. Our staff can also be called upon to assist with completing and collecting application forms to make it easier for our senior tenants.

“Based on the surplus, I’m pleased that we can extend the rental concessions for another year. I know times are tough and this must come as a welcome relief to SASSA pensioners. We cross subsidise pensioners rent as a result of our restructuring. The income this generates is ploughed back into supporting our tenants, especially old age pensioners,” said Faieda Jacobs, General Manager of Rental Property.

Since our formation in the 1920s, Communicare has made a social impact with income generating activities to bring discounted rentals to the Cape Town community. Our current innovative social enterprise model ensures that the organisation can continue to do this in future, while also investing in new developments for the benefit of residents of Cape Town.

In October 2019, 138 new apartments in Musgrave Park opened for new tenants in our goodfind Properties portfolio and in November 2020 Communicare will begin construction on 314 social housing units in Phase 3 of Bothasig Gardens. Both developments are in well-established neighbourhoods, allowing tenants to live close to work opportunities and amenities such as schools and hospitals.

In 2018, we were able to give R1 million in rental concessions and R2 million in 2019. We hope to be able to exceed this in 2020, so that our most vulnerable tenants, the pensioners can find financial relief in tough economic times.

In addition, many tenants who had fallen on hard times were offered 3 months “rental holidays” to assist them to recover after some had lost their jobs, suffered serious ill health or the death of a breadwinner. This benefit amounted to R109 166 this year and helped 27 tenants to avoid taking on new debt or being evicted.

“I will continue to make every effort to get the best deal for our tenants through cross-subsidisation that is now working well. Providing more good quality, affordable homes for more people is what we strive to achieve,” concluded Jacobs.

Tenants who have queries are advised to phone the Toll Free Call Centre at 0800 266 737.