Cape Town - The provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEA&DP) released the first ever draft Western Cape government Inclusionary Housing Policy Framework to facilitate affordable housing in high-valued areas.
Andricus van der Westhuizen, DA's Western Cape committee spokesperson on Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, said the framework essentially provided overarching guidance to assist municipalities with the formulation of policies for inclusionary housing.
“Over the years, due to the lack of critical policy framework, the gap between subsidised housing or public rental stocks and opportunities from the private sector has grown immensely,” said Van der Westhuizen.
He said intended beneficiaries of this framework were those with stable incomes that surpassed the thresholds to be considered for current housing assistance programmes.
DEA&DP spokesperson Rudolf van Jaarsveldt said the framework will incentivise private developers to include affordable or social housing options in their respective market-driven developments by granting additional land use rights.
“The draft recommends that municipalities introduce overlay zones to pro-actively increase available land use rights, this will save developers time and money in obtaining land use permission,” said van Jaarsveldt.
Housing activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi welcomed the policy framework and the clarity that inclusionary housing was a tool for spatial transformation and justice.
“It provides some considerations for some diversity of people who will benefit, including saying that municipalities should look at how their policies can benefit women, the youth and people living with disabilities. However, the policy framework fails to clearly articulate the need for inclusionary housing to be racially targeted to break down persistent apartheid segregation,” said Ndifuna Ukwazi’s Robyn Park-Ross.
Mayco member for human settlemets Malusi Booi said the City welcomed and supported this development as they were in the process of developing their own inclusionary housing policy which will be premised on the principles as captured within the provincial framework.
Van Jaarsveldt said they hoped that a final draft could be ready before the end of March 2022 as extensive engagement was still required to consider the comments received and any associated consultations required.