These are students undertaking housing and human settlements qualification in various Universities in the country, graduates of these qualification, academics who teaches and practitioners and professionals within the sector.
The Institute was established to advocate for the interests of its members while leading programmes for their professionalisation in the field. IHSP-SA was legally registered in 2016, and initially named as the South African Institute of Human Settlement Practitioners. However, the Institute, in a modified entity name,
began to take off the ground in 2019 at which time its first Board of Directors was put into place.
It is also during November 2019 that the Institute convened a formal strategic planning session hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Built Environment and Development in the Howard College Campus in Durban. IHSP-SA is currently based office in East London, in the Eastern Cape in South Africe.