Commuters working in the Atlantic Seaboard stand in queues at the Sea Point Taxi Rank, waiting for transport home. Picture: Armand Hough/Independent Newspapers
Cape Town - Voted Time Out’s best city in the world, the reality is that for many Capetonians the lived experience is different.
Many spend nearly half their salaries on transport just to get to work, and have to stretch the rest of their money out for food and other necessities.
However, the idea that affordable housing could be built close to economic hubs leaves the Nimbys (Not In My Backyard) up in arms as they fear property prices will drop and areas will be unappealing.
“While some local residents are obviously concerned, I hope they can take comfort from the fact that mixed-income housing has been used successfully all over the world for a very, very long time, and that the few examples we have in South Africa generally function extremely well," says independent urban planner Nick Budlender.
He says Cape Town is probably “the most segregated city anywhere on earth”. And the Development Action Group's programme manager Crystal West said: “It is as though we live in a bubble and don’t realise the impact of poverty on so many people”.
“Added to that, the chance that you will have a normal family life is zero – basically you are functioning just to put food on the table and pay for transport – this has a big impact on family, community and societal development.”
Meanwhile Professor François Viruly, an associate professor and director of the Urban Real Estate Research Unit (URERU) at the University of Cape Town, says “it is critical that we start delivering affordable housing close to places of work”.
“We can no longer continue to deliver 40sqm houses, 40 kms from places of work, and which requires 40% of household income to be spent on transport.
“In addition we should be looking at sites that already have a level of infrastructure. Opening up new areas is associated with high infrastructure costs for municipalities.
“Many sites in and around the CBD, often owned by the public sector, offer development opportunities for the affordable housing sector. The challenge lies in delivering well-located affordable housing in suburbs that often have relatively high land and property prices.”
Also talking to the Cape Argus on Wednesday, Budlender described the city as “spatially dysfunctional, with the majority of families being forced to live very far away from economic centres and quality schools, hospitals and other services”.
He says there is no good reason that the people who work in, for example, the Atlantic Seaboard’s shops, offices, libraries, hospitals and homes “should be forced to live on the periphery when there is land available in the area to accommodate them and many others”.
“Not only does Cape Town's unjust urban form prevent huge numbers of people from living decent lives and achieving upward mobility, but it is also one of the biggest constraints to overall economic growth, as has been demonstrated by a recent Harvard Growth Lab study and decades of local scholarship.
“We urgently need to use vacant and underutilised public land like the former Green Point Bowling Green to create a city that is more socially, financially and environmentally sustainable.
“One of the best ways to do so is by building well-located mixed income housing projects."
Meanwhile City of Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis recently said the metro was trying to raise the bar on what the public should expect from the government.
Hill-Lewis said the reason they must push harder and do better, and aim higher was so that they can get more people out of poverty.
Meanwhile the Tafelberg site in Sea Point has been locked in legal battle for years. The site, originally earmarked for sale to build a private Jewish school, has been at the centre of campaigns led by Reclaim the City (RTC) and Ndifuna Ukwazi, who argue it should be used for affordable housing.
Judgment in the case was set aside recently. At the time Mpho Raboeane, executive director of Ndifuna Ukwazi said “the Tafelberg case is a defining test of South Africa’s commitment to undoing spatial apartheid.
“Despite commitments to land reform, affordable housing in urban areas and undoing spatial apartheid, political will and decisive action remain in question.
“We now look to the courts to clarify the state’s obligation and uphold the constitutional vision of spatial transformation. "
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