The demand for affordable housing in Cape Town as in other cities in South Africa is acute and the City of Cape Town is positioning itself at the forefront of new interventions to increase the supply of affordable housing, while addressing spatial transformation and enabling livable, integrated neighourboods across the city. This new strategic vision requires true team work and innovation, across City departments, across spheres of government and across the broader public- and private sectors.
The broadening of the City’s strategic role from regulator to greater enabler of affordable housing, in partnership with all roleplayers, including emerging micro-developers, traditional private developers, social housing partners, and households themselves, is critical to meeting an increasing demand for affordable housing.
“The demand for affordable housing will continue to increase as a result of the national economic conditions, which are being made worst by the impact of Covid-19 and the national lockdowns, the current national housing regulatory regime and the fall-out from the large-scale orchestrated unlawful occupations that have happened since the Covid-19 lockdown started,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Malusi Booi.
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The Human Settlements Strategy, which underwent an extensive three-month public participation, is aligned to the key focus areas of the City over the coming financial year, described in the City’s Strategic Management Framework as being:
• The pandemic response
• Prioritising essential services
• Prioritising financial sustainability
• Enabling economic recovery
• Responding to the land and housing crises
• Prioritising safety
• Responding to health and social impacts
• Organisational stabilisation, adaptation and resilience building
Interlinked housing markets
“Cape Town’s Human Settlements Strategy is for all in Cape Town. It is not for one sector or for government to handle on its own. Housing, across all types, affect all who live in Cape Town. Affordable housing, and incrementally enhancing affordable accommodation and basic services, must become a greater part of the mainstream conversation.” he said.
“It is aimed at enabling greater partnership, collaboration, inclusivity and innovation in the human settlements sphere, especially private sector support and the development of incentives and mechanisms to change how we do things. This is crucial, as the City on its own cannot solve the challenges of urbanisation, increased informality and a drastic shortage in the housing stock. Cape Town has many unique challenges and we must ensure we are able to manoeuvre around the complexities that we face as a city, such as suitable land scarcity and diminishing national grant funding for housing,” he added.
