Niall Mellon Township Trust

Building Blitz brings “Irish Houses” to Cape Town

A thin layer of grime covers the faces of the volunteers. 1,380 of them signed up for the Niall Mellon Township Trust annual Building Blitz, which took place from the 2nd to the 9th of November in Cape Town South Africa.

The grime isn’t the only thing they have in common. All have fundraised tirelessly for the last few months, raising a minimum of €4,000 each for the charity. They have all had to take a week off work for the privilege of coming to Cape Town to build homes in one of the most impoverished areas of this beautiful city. They endured a long flight and four hours delay due to an incident at Cape Town International Airport, which saw the runways closed down for hours.

But, they are all smiling. This is despite the wind that is whipping up a sandstorm on this dusty piece of ground known, almost ironically, as Freedom Park. Despite the rain, which seems to have followed the Irish 10,000 kilometers. Despite the lack of sleep, which is a combination of long hours on site and staying up late enjoying Cape Town’s hospitality. And despite the horrendous living conditions of the people of Freedom Park, who up until now have spent their entire lives in tiny corrugated iron and timber shacks.

The Niall Mellon Township Trust is building 493 “Irish houses” for the people of Freedom Park. This small community is so named because the residents frustrated at living in shacks in other people’s backyards and having to pay for the privilege decided to invade this piece on land on Freedom Day, April 27th 1998. They erected their shacks overnight and decided that they would fight for the right to remain there. It was a long battle, which saw the residents endure inhumane conditions. There were no toilets or water on site for the first three and a half years. Then, only the most basic of facilities were installed: a few chemical toilets and a handful of standpipes to service almost five hundred families.

There were many deaths in the community—preventable deaths according to the residents. Some twelve children lost their lives due to diarrhea in the first few years of life on Freedom Park. Tough times, that somehow seem to have united this impoverished community. Now their wait for housing is almost over.

The target for the annual Building Blitz was to build 200 houses, a community centre and to landscape a Garden of Hope in one short week. It is a tall order, but then again the founder of the charity, Niall Mellon, likes to push himself. He brings to the charity world the drive and ambition that have made him a successful entrepreneur and property developer in Ireland and the UK.

How it all got started

Like most of things in life, it was a chance encounter that drove Irishman Niall Mellon to found his Township Trust. The property developer was on holidays in the majestic city of Cape Town in 2002, but rather than being content visiting the tourist hotspots of the “Mother City” he ventured far off the holiday track to a township, perched on the side of a mountain overlooking Hout Bay, Imizamo Yethu. There he was appalled by the living conditions suffered by the 16,000 residents of this township. They were crammed into tiny shacks which most people would not house animals in. Niall decided to act and established the Niall Mellon Township Trust with the aim of housing as many shack-dwellers as possible.

From humble beginnings, when 125 houses were built in the first year and 150 Irish men and women ventured out to Africa on the first Building Blitz, the charity has grown to become the largest provider of charity housing in South Africa. This year, the Blitz grew to a mammoth 1,380 volunteers—the largest ever exodus of Irish people on a humanitarian mission overseas. The Nm is also aiming to build a massive 5,000 homes for shack-dwellers this financial year. It is an enormous expansion, but the need in South Africa is great.

The Housing Crisis in South Africa

South Africa is one of only a handful of countries, which enshrines the right to adequate housing in its Constitution. The country has come a long way in terms of housing since the dark days of apartheid, but there is much more to do. The South African Government estimates that 2.4 million families are still in desperate need of housing. This huge backlog is increasing by 200,000 units every year. This is despite the phenomenal achievement of building 2.3 million subsidized homes since the fall of Apartheid in 1994.

The South African Government currently delivers approximately 250,000 housing units a year. But as many as 500,000 houses will need to be built annually in order to meet its own target to provide all South Africans with adequate housing and eradicate townships by 2014. The numbers, and the need, is massive and it is becoming increasingly clear that unless others organizations, from the private sector and NGOs, become involved it will not meet this noble aim.

To date almost 3,000 Irish volunteers have heeded Niall Mellon’s call to help building homes for the homeless. With the 2007 group of volunteers surpassing their target, the Irish alone have built a total of 553 homes for shack-dwellers in Cape Town over the past five years. While the total number of houses built by the Nm as a whole now stands at more than 4,500. The numbers are impressive, but Niall has plans to dramatically increase them.

A Radical New Solution

Frustrations are mounting among those who have not yet seen their constitutional right to adequate accommodation realized. Increasingly, fed-up shack-dwellers in Johannesburg and recently Cape Town are taking to the streets in violent protest against the lack of service delivery. It is clear that after thirteen years of democracy, the rainbow nation is beginning to demand that promises are made good on.

It is time to implement other methods of housing delivery and the Nm believes it has the solution: a “Super Housing Factory”. It is another world’s first for the charity, which believes in constantly innovating. The Super Housing Factory will be capable when fully operational of delivering 5,000 houses per year—which will double the delivery numbers for Nm. It utilizes timber frame technology, which is widespread in North America and Europe but is less common in Africa.

Using only 200 workers in a factory environment, the Nm’s new venture will see 100 houses a week rolling off the production line. Much research has gone into the new initiative and the Nm is confident that these houses will be of even higher quality than their award winning traditional blockhouses. Speed and quality are the key ingredients for the Super Housing Factory.

The Nm has already secured the land for the factory from the City of Cape Town on a thirty-year lease at a nominal fee. However, it still needs to secure the funds to make the factory a reality. It will cost in the region of $13.5 million or R90 million to set-up the factory and the yearly operating costs are in the region of $14 million. The Nm is seeking a strategic partner to fund the development of this, the world’s first charity owned “Super Housing Factory”.

The innovative founder of the charity also believes that there is no reason why multiples of this factory cannot be rolled out across South Africa, and indeed anywhere in the world where housing is in desperate need.

“The Super Housing Factory has the potential to solve the housing crisis here in South Africa and anywhere there are slums,” says 40-year-old Niall Mellon. “I want this factory to be a show-case for developing countries worldwide and we will make the blueprint available to anyone who asks for it.”

Back to the Blitz

The craic, as they say on site, is ninety. So too is the level of activity. The sight of the shacks, piled one on top of the other, just outside the building site is enough to spur on the most hard-hearted. The 1,155 men and 225 women on the Blitz are far from that. “I work fairly hard at home,” says one red-faced volunteer busy laying one brick on top of another, “but nothing like as hard as I’m working out here”.

But, what a reward. At the end of the busiest Building Blitz since the inception of the charity five years ago, 203 houses, a community centre and a beautifully landscaped ‘Garden of Hope’ have been built. At the handing over ceremony on the last day of the Blitz many a burly builder sheds a few tears. As one of the new homers Rheeda Scholtz puts it “I thank the Irish people for building our homes and making our dreams come true.” This is the legacy that the Irish, led by Niall Mellon, leave behind them. As they returned to their homes 10,000 kilometers from Freedom Park they can rest assured that the beneficiaries of this now vibrant community will never forget them.