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women with some greeting her, Beater is less concerned with them.
Her main worry is getting a place to rent for the coming month.
Her landlord, a well-known short brain, told her a week ago that she wanted to use the room to accommodate a nephew.
Beater has to find accommodation otherwise come monthend she will be homeless.
She daydreams that at least one day she will get a stand of her owm and work towards building her own home.
Beater, a mother of three, is in a dilemma as it’s only five days before the month ends.
She has tried seeking alternative accommodation, but to no avail.
Her problem is that landlords have several demands apart from the rentals.
Such demands include being married with one child and formally employed.
In an extreme case, one landlord said she only entertains someone from her church or a couple without a child.
The search for a home is becoming tedious while time if fast flying.
Her husband, a drunk, has not made her life easier as she has been told in many areas that they want lodgers of strictly sober habits.
Beater is not alone, but among multitudes of Zimbabweans in urban areas that have to move from one house to the other looking for accommodation every monthend.
Their plight demonstrates a poor housing policy that has failed to prioritise development of low-cost housing.
Although acknowledging the absence of serviced land for the provision of offsite and onsite infrastructure as hindrance to decent accommodation, Minister Biti decided to allocate only US$70 million mainly towards completion of national projects and nothing towards assisting co-operative housing projects which by far have been providing the bulk of shelter to people.
The houses and flats to be build under the national projects will only house a few families, among them civil servants and are a drop in the ocean for a country with a ballooning housing waiting list.
The money is peanuts compared to the ignominious task of providing housing to a whooping 1,2 million on the country’s waiting list.
Although the figure is the official statistic by the Ministry of National Housing, the number could be three or four times higher if all people in need of accommodation are captured.
With the local authorities unable to deliver served land for hosing development, it is critical that the Government channel funds directly towards co-operatives, which have, been instrumental in the delivery of housing to people over the past 10 or so years.
The US$9 million proposal to on going housing projects provided through the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe will not go a long way in addressing the acute shortage of accommodation.
It is within this line that housing experts and housing schemes have received the 2012 budget with disgust saying it failed to address one the most important issues in the country.
Zimbabwe National Association of Housing Co-operatives believes the Minister of Finance should have come clear and moved to resource co-operatives if he was not paying lip service to the crippling need for housing in the country.
ZINAHCO executive director Mr Ticharwa Kagu said despite the critical role of housing co-operative in the provision of shelter to low income Zimbabweans, the Ministry Finance had conspired to ignore the sector.
Instead he said it had chosen to channel resources through banks making it difficult for co-operatives to access the funds.
“The money that they have channeled through the Infrastructure Bank will not make a lot of sense to housing co-operative as it can be accessed only by those with collateral.
“The resources will therefore available only to those with financial muscle and hence sideline the poor and low-income earners who are the target of the cooperatives.
“Imagine, of the US$25 million housing fund that was availed through the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe last year only one out of 3 000 housing cooperatives received some money. This is not pleasing at all,” he said.
He said there was need for proper mechanism to allow low-income earners access funds from Government earmarked for housing development.
Chairperson of the Harare North Housing Co-operatives Union chairperson Mr Misheck Mangwende said it was unfair that the inclusive Government continued to channel resources through council when the local authorities are doing nothing in the provision of sewer and water and roads on housing development units.
“If you see the amount of monies that we are putting into servicing land for housing development, council can not give us title deeds or lease agreement on the stand insisting that we first service the land.
“It follows that under these circumstances, Government through the budget, need to avail funds for purchase of equipment and laying water and sewer pipes something that used to be done by local authorities.
“It is with this in mind that we feel the 2012 budget falls far short of our expectation and is only paying lip service to housing provision in the country,” he said.
Mr Mangwende said it was unwise for local authorities to continue stick to old urban laws when they are no longer doing the servicing of land.
“These by laws are giving us unnecessary problems and are retarding development of housing cooperatives.
“We feel the council (Harare City Council) does not want council as they are not making our operations easy by sticking to archaic laws that do not reflect the situation of the ground,” he added.
There is also consensus among stakeholders that Government should resuscitate the public sector investment programme to finance capital projects aimed at housing development in the country.
An official with the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development said efforts were under to ensure housing co-operatives get preference on the allocation of funds by the ministry as shelter was a critical part of the life.
According to a recent Zimstat survey provision of decent housing was lagging behind in Zimbabwe.
The survey which looks at only at types of quality of dwelling structure, but also looks at the density of people using those structures said there was need for deliberate efforts to increase housing availability in the country.
This, analysts say entails availing resources to the engines of development in this case are co-operatives.
Instances of abuse of finances they argue is a result of members having to spend a lot of time with subscriber money as seek to raise the money needed to pay for capital projects.
As we wait for the negotiation for external housing mortgages targeting housing construction and the recovery of the construction industry in general that the minister proposed the public would continue.
Inadequate housing has seen the public being subjected to rent-seeking behavior that has seen Zimbabwe paying a staggering US$70 a room when in neighbouring Zambia they pay US$10.
This has heightened the need for houses, pushing people to jump into any scheme even without checking resulting in them loosing thousands to bogus.
A lodger in Glen View, Ms Charity Chitsa said: “Being a lodger is one of the most frustrating things for a parent. Imagine being summoned and scolded by an old man because you are lodging at his or her house.
“Sometimes you are forced to call someone father or mother when they years your junior. I wish to have a place, even in the jungle, that I call mine otherwise I am in trouble here,” he said.
Only when the fiscus starts recognising housing co-operatives and give them capital to buy building materials can we begin to see change in the provision of housing.