Cape Town Blames Shrinking National Funding for Slow Affordable Housing Delivery
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The City of Cape Town has told the Western Cape High Court that sharply declining national grant funding is behind the slow delivery of affordable housing, as activists question progress on land already released.
The City of Cape Town has blamed shrinking national funding for the slow delivery of affordable housing, as housing activists question the pace of development on land that has already been released. In papers filed before the Western Cape High Court following a Constitutional Court ruling, the city said national grant funding for affordable housing has declined sharply over the past decade.
The Constitutional Court ordered updated reports from the city and the provincial government after finding that information previously before the court was years out of date. About 400,000 households are estimated to be on Cape Town's housing waiting list.
City Mayco member for human settlements Carl Pophaim said no new social housing projects on city-owned land have received funding approvals from the national government in the past five years. Pophaim said thousands of housing opportunities are ready for construction but cannot proceed without support from the national government.
“The city has so far released fourteen sites for affordable housing purposes, including six inner-city sites owned by the council with a combined yield of 7,000 residential units,” the city said. Buhle Booi, head of political organising and campaigns at the social justice organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi, lauded the city for releasing land while lamenting the lack of development on those sites.
“We've noted that the city is releasing public land, but we are increasing the growing concern about a mere release of public land without development on any of the sites,” Booi said, urging the city to develop its own financial mechanisms to deliver affordable housing in and around the CBD.