Lack of funds is among the challenges preventing beneficiaries at Farm 37, near Walvis Bay, from relocating.

Located about 7 kilometres east of Walvis Bay, Farm 37 was identified in 2015 as a solution to the land and housing backlog.

Eight years later, the dream became real when the municipality transferred plots to 50 residents in July, who voluntarily agreed to relocate.

Joel Kashimba and his partner Hilma Lineekela are the first and only residents of the isolated place thus far.

"Life here is good, although we get lonely at times. But we are surviving because we no longer need to pay rent to someone, and the plot belongs to us. When we were in the backyard shacks, it was tough because we also had to buy food and toiletries and send something to the north. If you fail to pay rent, they send the police to sort you out," said Lineekela.

Deputy Mayor Sara Mutondoka says the 50 beneficiaries were given six months to set up their structures, but many of them are unable to source building materials.

Others, she noted, hope to move during the December holiday so their children do not struggle to get to school.

Mutondoka indicated that the council will continue with the plan to allocate more plots, and housing saving groups are encouraged to apply as they speed up the process of servicing the land.

"Fishermen, for example, have already contacted or are engaging their employers and engaging the fishing industry so that the industry assists them to construct houses; the ones in groups or in saving groups are already organising themselves to host events to raise funds. So this really shows already how people are not only willing to sit back and wait for the government, but if we can allow them to also bring their contribution, they are willing to do so."

The Walvis Bay Backyard Tenants Group is one of the saving groups to which the council has allocated portion 19 of Farm 37.

So far, the group has raised some funds to pay a surveyor, but the fundraising is not easy.

"Our businesses, companies, and government—this is an opportunity for them to assist us genuinely because we are coming to a stage whereby we have found a permanent solution to the burning of ghettos, the suffering of people, and housing delivery. So now if they are to assist us, then they are doing something we can say genuinely. But if they wait for us to burn in ghettos and then come and assist us, that, I can say, is hypocrisy. Sorry to say, but that's how I look at it," said Immanuel Festus, representative of the Walvis Bay Backyard Tenants Group.

Currently, there are communal toilets and water available to residents at portion 10. 

The Backyard Tenants Group has appealed to the council to sell the plots at an affordable price as saving groups plan to contribute to the servicing of land.