Cape Town - Land and housing activists have welcomed the City’s release of the New Market Street site in Woodstock for social housing, and have called for work on the site to be carried out with the urgency it requires.
In a statement, mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the 9 000 square metre site will yield 375 social housing units and over 350 open market residential units.
City Council approved the release of the site for social housing development on Wednesday.
“You may recall that the original feasibility study for this 9 000 square metre property envisaged 200 social housing units as part of a mixed-use development. However, as we reach the final land release stage, that number has risen to 375 social housing units, as part of our commitment to maximise yield working together with social housing developers. These units will be cross-subsidised by retail space and more than 350 open market residential units,” Hill-Lewis said.
Mayco member for human settlements Carl Pophaim said the City would provide more information about project costs and timelines in due course.
In total, the City had over 6 500 social housing units at various stages of the planning pipeline across 50 parcels of land, Pophaim said.
“These units will be a real game changer for qualifying residents who earn less than R22 000 a month,” Pophaim said.
Ndifuna Ukwazi said the organisation has been waiting for this, for several years in the face of a worsening housing crisis.
“Social housing is the only housing programme that has ‘location’ in its requirements and therefore creates well-located affordable housing, which will contribute to changing the enduring spatial apartheid patterns we currently face. The location of the New Market Street site is at the edge of Woodstock, and the inner city where no forms of affordable housing have been built in three decades of democracy. We welcome this development and the urgency with which the mayor is approaching the matter. We look forward to the turning of sods and the arrival of construction cranes as soon as possible.”
Reclaim the City leader Karen Hendricks said it welcomed and supported the release for social/affordable housing.
Hendricks said the site was one of 11 in the inner city earmarked for affordable housing since July 2017.
Ward councillor Ian McMahon said he was thrilled the City released the property for social housing development.
“This site along with other sites in my ward now released with a yield of thousands of affordable housing units, including social housing units. These sites in ward 115 include New Market Street, Pine Road, Dillon Lane in Woodstock, as well as Salt River Market development.”