The Community Residential Units (CRU) programme is a City of Cape Town initiative aimed at reviewing and upgrading 7 700 of Council's rental units. These are divided into 11 project areas across Cape Town for workload purposes. The CRU programme also includes enhancing the living space surrounding the rental stock through various interventions such as fencing, planting trees, hard surfacing; parking areas etc).

The programme is directly aligned to the provisions of the National Housing Policy’s CRU Programme (refer Refurbishment (Option 3) in the policy lcoated here).

Current upgrade project

The City's latest CRU upgrade, which aims to improve the quality of life for thousands of its tenants, began in 2008.  The upgrade will not affect their rentals. The first phase incorporates 7 775 rental properties in the following project areas across Cape Town: 

• Kewtown
• Scottsville
• Scottsdene
• Uitsig
• Hanover Park
• Marble Flats (Ottery)
• Woodlands
• The Range (Elsies River)
• Heideveld
• Connaught
• Manenberg 

The current project is expected to take five years to complete. 

Residents have been vacating their flats, a block at a time, so that renovations can be completed. On average, a block of flats is upgraded over a period of a month. While the rental units are being upgraded, residents who are unable to move in with family or friends during the refurbishment have been accommodated in Temporary Accommodation Villages (TAVs) built specifically for this purpose. The containers used for this purpose are typically 2,4 m by 12 m long, and have insulation, partitions, power, running water, ablution facilities as well as internal and external lighting. All these services areinstalled prior to residents moving in. Additional storage space is also provided.

The upgrade encompasses a complete transformation, including: 

• Repairs to leaks and blocked sewers 
  
• Repairs to plumbing installations 
  
• Rewiring of the entire electrical installation 
  
• Repairs to deteriorating staircases 
  
• Repairs to leaking roofs, fascias, gutters and down pipes 
  
• Repairs to doors and windows 
  
• Installation of new kitchen sink units 
  
• Laying of vinyl flooring 
  
• Laying of new wall tiling 
  
• Improvements to refuse collection areas 
  
• Improved security, i.e. repair of fences and gates
  
  

Funding for the upgrade has been provided by National Government, according to the national CRU Policy, and is estimated at over a billion rand for the first phase alone. The project will be implemented in other areas as funds are received by the City.

Click here to view a video of the CRU programme.