City’s upgrade project for Ravensmead Park IDA commences

16 June 2017

The establishment of an Incremental Development Area (IDA) will provide much relief to the residents of the Ravensmead Park informal settlement as a total of 51 housing opportunities will be created. Through this upgrade project, the settlement will receive formalised roads and an internal water supply network, including erf connections and internal sewers.

‘The Ravensmead Park IDA project is in line with our commitment to improving the lives of our residents by incrementally formalising settlements and focusing on large-scale developments with full amenities and opportunities over time. The City’s Informal Settlements Department is truly excited to now be able to implement our plans for this area as IDAs in general are a relatively new concept for the City,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services; and Energy, Councillor Xanthea Limberg.

‘The Ravensmead Park IDA will surely restore dignity to the families and all residents who reside there as the various upgrades will improve their living conditions vastly and provide services and infrastructure they have never had access to before. The City’s new area-based approach allows us to hone in on various areas within the central region to identify the very unique needs of each informal settlement,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Area Central, Councillor Siyabulela Mamkeli.

The establishment of this IDA is in line with the City’s Organisational Development Transformation Plan which focuses on ensuring greater parity of services for all the people of Cape Town, with one of the priorities being the mainstreaming of basic service delivery to informal settlements.

Currently, approximately 38 families reside in Ravensmead Park, but through this IDA project the City aims to yield 51 housing opportunities with the available space and the planned densification of the area to be developed.

Due to the growth of the families within the settlement, many of the households now have adult children with their own families. Therefore the remaining opportunities will be split among the households with the greater requirement for additional accommodation. The City will also ensure that some of remaining housing opportunities created accommodate some of the disabled and visually impaired residents from Ravensmead Park.

Apart from the road infrastructure and housing opportunities planned for each erven within this site, the residents of Ravensmead Park will also benefit from the civil engineering services which will be provided to the area. These services include roads and stormwater infrastructure (as the area will now tie into the existing stormwater network), an internal water supply and internal sewers.

Residents are reminded that only those who qualify in accordance with the subsidised housing criteria will be eligible for a future top structure. Residents have to earn less than R3 500 per household to qualify for a government-subsidised house and may not have owned a house previously. Non-qualifiers will not be eligible for a future top structure but will still receive a site and service or a serviced structure.

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