Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has approved the public participation process for the release of the District Six fruit and vegetable site for social housing.
The council gave the green light to the proposed sale of the remainder of Erf 5667 in the inner city, at Bloemhof Street, District Six, and proposed the closure and sale of Erf 5668, at Kent Street, to social housing institutions and/or private developers.
The property houses a Food Lover’s Market store and a community garden managed by a non-profit organisation. The City is planning to consolidate the two to offer 150 social housing units. The existing commercial development on the ground floor will be retained.
The immediate surroundings are made up of sectional title apartment complexes and sectional title offices, as well as retail-related properties along Roeland and Canterbury streets.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said with this latest initiative, the City had now secured 1 130 social housing unit approvals in council since May.
Human settlements mayoral committee member Malusi Booi said it was encouraging the City now had over 800 central city social housing units in or near the construction phase via social housing partners. These units, he said, included one in Maitland, two in Woodstock in Pine Road and Dillon Lane, and one in Salt River Market.
“We are also not giving up on the Woodstock Hospital precinct, where around 700 social housing units have been delayed by the orchestrated building hijackings of March 2017.
“The City is committed to doing everything possible to fast-track this social housing through the correct legal channels. In total, the City currently has more than 6 500 social housing units in the overall pipeline across 50 land parcels citywide,” Booi said.
EFF councillor Lungiswa Ntshuntshe said the party did not support any sale of public land. Ntshuntshe said social housing was not a solution if it marginalised those who could not afford it.
“Social housing is not an answer, especially if you don’t produce inclusionary housing within the social housing spaces to address the challenges for those earning between R3 501 and R22 000.
“The majority of our people do not qualify at all. The City must use spaces to build government-owned facilities, with the required skills needed by the City, acquired from a practical skills programme offered by the City itself, which in the long run will eradicate outsourcing.
“Our job is to make sure we assist in service delivery, and selling is not service delivery,” she said.