City corrects false information around social housing in Central Cape Town area
03 December 2020
The City of Cape Town confirms that false information is currently in circulation that social housing projects in the Central Cape Town area have been cancelled. This is completely incorrect and deliberately misleading.
The City is currently driving over 2 000 affordable housing opportunities already in the construction phase in and near urban centres across the metro, including in the central Cape Town area.
This includes major collaborations between City and the Western Cape Government, together driving the innovative Conradie Better Living Model (BLM) development (3 600 units total) in Pinelands, an inner city feeder suburb. Similar collaboration has succeeded in Belhar CBD (4 000 units total) where an affordable community context is being created around key education institutions.
Of the sites currently in the inner city pipeline, there are several City-driven projects in the central Cape Town area with major milestones expected to be achieved in 2021. It is completely incorrect that these projects and others have been “cancelled”, with the current status as follows:
- Pine Road (244 projected social housing units): Ready to break ground in March 2021.
- Dillon Lane (160 projected social housing units): Development application in process. Public participation recently concluded.
- Salt River Market (216 social housing units and 100 gap rental opportunities projected as part of 723 units total): To be handed over to the Social Housing Institution (SHI) for development in latter part of 2021.
- Woodstock Hospital: This site could be ready for handover to an SHI within 2021, but if the property is not vacated by all the “Reclaim the City”/ Ndifuna Ukwazi-enabled illegal occupants, redevelopment, including the provision of social housing units, is impossible. The same applies to the provincially owned Helen Bowden Nurse’s Home near the V&A Waterfront.
In District Six, the Western Cape Government has already built the District Six CDC healthcare facility, anticipating the return of thousands of beneficiaries to the CBD via the National Government-led restitution process. The City is hosting extensive engagements with residents about a spatial vision for District Six, called a neighbourhood plan or Local Spatial Development Framework.
‘The City recently concluded public comment on its draft Human Settlements Strategy, which foresees a range of innovative accommodation types and partnership-driven developments in urban centres across the metro.
‘The toxic legacy of Ndifuna Ukwazi’s ‘Reclaim The City’ campaign is one of the biggest obstacles to the building of social housing on two well-located sites in urban centres of the metro that are both suitable and viable. If these properties are not vacated by all the RTC-enabled occupants, redevelopment, including the provision of social housing units, is impossible. We are also witnessing the self-interested spreading of false information about City-driven social housing projects in the central Cape Town area, which are in fact ongoing and not cancelled as claimed.
‘Social housing developments are intricate and complex under the current national Human Settlements Framework and weak national fiscus. The City remains committed to enabling more affordable housing opportunities on suitable and well-located land across the metro through partnerships and innovation,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Malusi Booi.
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
