This site has been compiled to give residents an overview of the role that local government plays in providing housing for the poor and indigent and those who earn low incomes in Cape Town.

As housing is a key strategy for redressing poverty, creating employment, encouraging saving and improving socio-economic conditions for disadvantaged sectors of the population, the City’s Human Settlements Directorate has created a range of housing delivery options to provide initial basic services to some communities and permanent homes to others over a multi-year period. The details thereof can be found in the directorate’s 5 year plan which aligns to the City’s IDP.

The plan focuses on accelerating housing provision and on ensuring that land utilisation is well planned, managed and monitored. In doing so, it goes beyond the provision of bricks and mortar as a housing solution to the creation of integrated living environments that offer residents access to economic, educational, recreational and cultural opportunities and activities, and health, welfare and police services.

Although the plan provides for the development of some 4 500 new housing opportunities (in the form of rentals, ownership and/or a serviced site) per year, amongst others, it is not able to immediately redress Cape Town’s current housing backlog, which is increasing at a steady rate due to population growth and the impact of rural-urban migration.

The City’s ability to deliver public sector housing is constrained by its limited financial and skills resources, not to mention the complicated nature of the housing production process itself, which includes lengthy environmental and approval processes and protocols for intergovernmental cooperation.

Although progress might be impeded at times, since 2003 the directorate has delivered more than 23 820 housing opportunities– a life changing opportunity for the thousands of people who have benefited therefrom.