ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the strategies and achievements of a South African people’s organization whose membership consists predominantly of women. The South African Homeless People’s Federation is a network of housing savings schemes that began in 1991 from an informal exchange and information programme between squatter areas. It is supported in its work by the People’s Dialogue on Land and Shelter, a South African NGO. After some years of small-scale localized savings within the schemes, the People’s Dialogue obtained capital for a housing loan programme and set up a dedicated housing fund known as the uTshani Fund. Lending for housing construction through group-based finance was started in April 1995 and over 700 housing loans have been distributed.
