HOUSING

Safe & affordable communal houses

NOAH has 11 communal houses offering dignity, companionship and independence to fit 110 residents and independent social pensioners in the Greater Cape Town area.

South Africa has an affordable housing crisis and no restitution has been provided to the elderly who were the most disenfranchised by the previous regime and whose needs remain largely unmet. Since the Government caps accommodation in state-subsidised facilities at 2%, the onus is on NPOs to develop community-based models of care that foster independence.

Prospective residents often come from chilling circumstances: inter-generational conflict, abusive relationships, crippling rentals, isolation, neglect, etc.

NOAH’s communal housing model provides exactly the opposite: ordinary houses in ordinary streets, these affordable ‘digs’ are non-institutional, communal homes, where residents have companionship, dignity, security and independence.

NOAH Home operates in six communities in greater Cape Town. In Woodstock, Athlone, Maitland, Elsies River and Stellenbosch.

SAFE SPACES

NOAH homes are places where they can start to heal – monthly safe circles offer an opportunity to recognise accountability, build trust and improve communication.

Housing in numbers

SERVICES & REQUIREMENTS

RESIDENTS’ PROFILES

Residents must:

To apply for housing at NOAH a person must be between the ages of 60 and 70 and receive a SASSA pension and have their name on the Housing Waiting List.
To have your name added to the Housing Waiting List you will need to telephone NOAH’s Reception on 021 447 6334 or e-mail info@noah.org.za and ask for your name to be added to the Housing Waiting List.
When there is a vacancy an applicant will receive an SMS asking them to contact the NOAH Housing Manager who will give them information about the application process and what documents need to be completed.
Couples applying must be legally married

HOUSING FACILITIES

Shared double bedroom with another resident
Shared use of bathrooms, kitchen and lounge
Residents must provide a single bed, linen, curtains, a lockable cupboard, crockery and cutlery for one person.
Residents, if a couple, must provide as above for each individual

MONTHLY COSTS*
Administrative levy	R 430
Primary health care levy	R 27
Contribution towards costs of municipal services used by residents	varies for each house around R 630
TOTAL COSTS	R 1087

APPLICATION CHECKLIST

Application housing form
Two certified copies of the applicant’s ID
Three-character references (not members of your family)

Valid police name clearance
Next of kin form
Code of Conduct Form

HOUSING

Add your name to the waiting list

Mail Us

Food Security

Garden Project

When the Covid-19 pandemic started threatening food security across the world, NOAH took action. We shifted the NOAH model from meal provision to the establishment of sustainable, communal and household-led food gardens. This has seen the gradual transformation of available garden spaces at the Woodstock and Khayelitsha Centre premises and individual households into flourishing veggie gardens.

A couple of years in, the benefits of this project are already evident. With 90 individual household gardens and 7 communal gardens, residents can eat, share or sell fresh, homegrown veggies that provide nutritious and healthy meals. The garden project helps generate significant cost-savings for our elders, their families and neighbours.

Nutrition Education

Through the Woodstock and Khayelitsha clinics, partnerships with the University of Cape Town, and wonderful volunteers, NOAH members have access to simple and easy to implement nutritional advice.

Residents can learn about the nutritional value of different foods, managing monthly grocery bills, cooking homemade, healthy and balanced meals and more.

Thanks to the Health team’s expertise, members can also benefit from specialized advice on topics such as managing blood sugar levels for diabetics.

Healing and Prayer

”In circles we learn to listen our way back to one another. We listen more and speak less. We listen to understand. We do not listen to react or attack. We listen to hear and see one another’s soul and, in that way, we find a way to live together with understanding, compassion and repair.

Healing and Prayer

Many of our beneficiaries lived with unprocessed trauma brought about by adverse childhood experiences and difficult adulthood – especially living under Apartheid. NOAH’s psycho-social approach focuses on a collective healing modality with individual counselling should the need to be evident, coupled with referrals to other organisations and institutions.

The Safe Circle approach aims to increase the capacity of the NOAH community to reduce adversity. NOAH beneficiaries learn to incorporate new ways of being with self and others that change how people experience and deal with the world. Understanding how this happens, requires knowledge of the brain, adversity, trauma responses and how healing can take place, individually and communally.

NOAH retains the services of two trained counsellors in Woodstock, Khayelitsha and Athlone. Based on the safe circles approach, they provide conflict resolution skills for those living in community and one-on-one support to members struggling with various aspects of their lives. A wonderful by-product has been the improvement in the way internal house conflict has been better managed and resolved.

Gender-based violence and abuse prevails and through the individual counselling service those cases have been swiftly referred and addressed.

This has been an amazing blessing and we have seen lives changed for the good as they have been given new and helpful skills to make good choices and live their lives to the full. The next step will be to embark on a lay counsellor programme where NOAH residents will be trained to offer this support to others in their communities.

Another aspect of Healing is spirituality. For this reason, a prayer group is led by our residents and held every morning. Everyone is welcome, and a safe and spiritual space is provided for all to share, reflect and offer up their prayer requests. It sets the tone for the day and brings a sense of peace and purpose to all those who attend.

Health

Entrance Requirements to NOAH Clinic

All applicants for the NOAH Clinic need to be 60 years and over and receive a SASSA pension as their sole income. They will need to provide us with proof of SASSA pension membership and produce their ID document. On application potential members are informed of our consultation fee of R70 which needs to be paid on the day of their visit.

Waiting List

NOAH clinics are capped as far as the number of clinic members we can accommodate. We have capacity for a max of 300 members per clinic which allows us to manage interventions more closely and track individuals treatment and progress. We have a waiting list for those wanting to join the clinic. When there is an available space the next in line on the list gets contacted.

Get in touch on 021 447 6334 to add your name to the waiting list.

HOUSING

Safe & affordable communal houses

NOAH has 11 communal houses offering dignity, companionship and independence to fit 110 residents and independent social pensioners in the Greater Cape Town area.

SAFE SPACES

NOAH homes are places where they can start to heal – monthly safe circles offer an opportunity to recognise accountability, build trust and improve communication.

Housing in numbers

SERVICES & REQUIREMENTS

RESIDENTS’ PROFILES

Residents must:

HOUSING FACILITIES

APPLICATION CHECKLIST

HOUSING

Add your name to the waiting list

Contact Us

Donate

Commitments

Home Industry

Loaves, rolls, biscuits, jams, cakes, confectionaries, heritage foods, made to order!

Garden Project

Nutrition Education

Healing and Prayer

Activities

Entrance Requirements to NOAH Clinic

Waiting List