Housing activists, the City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government seem to be at loggerheads over a variety of projects that could provide much-needed affordable housing in urban centres across the Mother City.

Activists maintain that authorities have not done enough to address the huge housing backlog in the City, while both the City and Province have accused members of Reclaim the City and Ndifuna Ukwazi of obstructing progress.

Centre to the conflict is the continued illegal occupation of the Woodstock Hospital and the Helen Bowden Nurses Home near the V&A Waterfront, with hundreds of people now living at these sites.

The City has released central Cape Town land parcels with an estimated yield of over 4 900 affordable housing units, including 2 100 social housing units. Sites include New Market Street, Pine Road, Dillon Lane, and Pickwick in Woodstock, as well as Salt River Market and the now tenanted Maitland Mews development, with more in the pipeline.

In June this year, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said city-wide, there are over 6 500 social housing units at various stages in the planning pipeline across 50 well-located parcels of land.

But housing activists are not satisfied with the pace of delivery, and made their unhappiness known by staging a protest outside Premier Alan Winde’s official residence in the early hours of Monday morning, demanding the fast-tracking of affordable housing.

Reclaim The City has accused Winde of failing to properly engage with them, but Winde struck a defiant note last week, condemning the role the group has played in the illegal occupation of sites, including the Helen Bowden Nurses home.

In a letter to Reclaim the City, Winde wrote: “I am also not willing to meet with you until you condemn the ongoing illegal occupation of the Helen Bowden Nurses Home and other properties which have been earmarked for affordable housing in central Cape Town and make every effort not to further hamper our efforts to develop these sites for our most vulnerable residents.”

Winde says the public is being misled over efforts for provide viable, sustainable housing opportunities.

“This does not help matters and only serves to divide us when we should be working together to find multiple solutions and approaches to meet our housing needs – all of us: government, residents, the private sector have a role to play.”

It comes as the City of Cape Town has announced a public participation process for the development of the Woodstock Hospital site, which is set to provide 500 housing opportunities.

A portion will be available for social housing, and a portion will be placed on the open market.

The MMC for Human Settlements Carl Pophaim says the illegal occupation of the Woodstock Hospital site has been the single biggest delay to this development.

“The City will conduct engagements with the unlawful occupants as part of the broad public participation process to be undertaken for the disposal of the property. The response for the existing occupants will be dependent on the socio-economic profile of the households. The City intends to engage the households on the options available to them to determine the appropriate response for each household in terms of Council policy and legislation.”

 

The MEC of Infrastructure Tertius Simmers has also criticised the activist groups.

“It is concerning that these activist groups that claim to fight for spatial redress and the poor, are seemingly working against our efforts to deliver viable housing opportunities, especially in the City of Cape Town. Since 2019, unlawful occupations and land invasions imposed on the Western Cape Department of Infrastructure (DoI) an expenditure of R987 million to secure our housing development projects. This does not only put tremendous strain on our budgets, but it robs deserving beneficiaries of housing opportunities.”

The occupiers of the Woodstock Hospital Site (which they renamed Cissie Gool House), and other sites, face an uncertain future.

Reclaim the City says housing authorities are falsely blaming them for a lack of progress.

“Instead of criminalising occupiers, the City needs to recognize its own mistakes, the constraints it operates under, and that rushing forward to evict 900 people from the only well-located housing for poor and working class people in the central city will do nothing to reverse spatial apartheid.”