Cape Town - Housing activists have slammed the City for allocating “too little” money to their housing directorate.
“There should be a larger budget allocation for housing. While we understand that the government faces many competing demands, the scale of our housing and segregation crisis, and the way that it is linked with many other societal issues, means that a significant amount of money is required,” said Nick Budlender, researcher at Ndifuna Ukwazi.
The City said it had allocated
R2.7billion to fund a number of housing projects over the next three years. The City said over the next three financial years it would continue to offer a range of accommodation options for its more vulnerable residents.
“It will require the support of the greater Cape Town community as well as affected neighbourhoods and
beneficiaries, given the growing demand for housing opportunities in light of rapid urbanisation.”
“Projects that they have earmarked are located across the metro and include informal settlement upgrades in Khayelitsha and Philippi,
among others, and formal subsidy housing programmes valued at more than R1.6bn.
“More than R330million is also allocated for public housing over the next three years,” the City said.
“We would also like to see a greater number of housing projects planned in well-located areas. Not all projects are reflected in the budget, but the spatial distribution of those that are does very little to dismantle the apartheid city structure,” Budlender said.
Mayco member for human
settlements Malusi Booi said: “The City will be working on approximately 50 formal housing projects alone,
earmarked as per the budget over
the next three financial years, of
different scopes and scales and with different work being conducted.”
Booi said projects catered for in the 2018/19 budget were under way.
“Where there needs to be roll-overs due to delays caused by, for instance, crime or community dynamics, these projects are taken into the new financial year,” he said.