Regeneration is creating uncertainty in suburbs
Marginalised citizens feel excluded from developments
WOODSTOCK and Salt River are suburbs unlike any other. Having survived the Group Areas Act and absorbed families displaced during the forced removals from District Six and the Dry Docks, the suburb continues to thrive as a melting pot of cultures, race, class and religion.
In the early 2000s the City of Cape Town introduced an urban renewal initiative to respond to inner city decline.
While the regeneration of the inner city is heralded as an achievement for the City of Cape Town, it is worrying for the marginalised and local citizens who are experiencing various forms of exclusion from the renewal developments. This has been most notable in Bo-Kaap, De Waterkant, Lower Gardens, Green Point and increasingly in Woodstock and Salt River.
Evictions of families in these areas continue to evoke uproar in activists and residents.
Prompted by the need to better understand the effects of urban renewal, the Development Action Group (DAG) undertook a study to deepen its work in Woodstock and Salt River.
DAG took the time to listen to people and to hear their personal stories, revealing perspectives not found in policy documents or popular materials.
Engagements took place with close to 35 organisations and individuals ranging from well organised rate-paying associations to religious institutions, property agents, residents and other representatives of various nationalities in the area.
DAG found that Woodstock and Salt River cannot simply be reduced to “real estate value”. It is a neighbourhood which builds on decades of human relations that speak to a quality of life now missing from many of Cape Town’s urban areas.
Woodstock and Salt River is an integrated neighbourhood characterised by mixed income, high density, multiracial, inter-faith, diverse nationalities and public transport – elements that truly reflect the aspirations of national development plans and local policies.
The voices from Woodstock and Salt River are not homogeneous, highlighting the limitations in processing and interpreting urban renewal.
The departure point for DAG was primarily focused on property and land markets, which needed a more in-depth understanding to appreciate those aspects that go unnoticed in these neighbourhoods.
Residents spoke about a unique quality of life in Woodstock and Salt River, which is changing rapidly. Many felt like strangers in their own backyard, saying “there is nothing there for us except coffee shops on every other corner and places we cannot afford to eat at, buy from, and enjoy”.
As one put it: “Salt River used to be the hub, we had places like Bonwit and Rex Trueform, and the streets were lined with brokers selling fresh produce. People walked in droves here, either to or on their back way from work.”
Faith-based organisations have a significant influence in Woodstock and Salt River. A mosque committee member said: “During the xenophobic attacks, we accommodated and fed 450 individuals who came from many African countries, for six months.”
A pastor said: “There are two different language services for the English and French community, that reach out to residents beyond Woodstock and Salt River up to Bellville.”
The interviews highlighted the eroding of community and culture as a result of a thriving property market.
Property agents and residents told stories of how families who have been in the area for more than 20 years have sold their homes due to increased inflation, retrenchments and the rising costs of owning in Woodstock and Salt River. Families are no longer moving up the property market ladder, instead they are forced to move to other areas like Grassy Park and Retreat.
Another property specialist provided a contrary view that the “increased property prices in the area have motivated these families to sell and get their money’s worth in areas like Athlone and Maitland”.
The question as to whether or not the families received value for their money is still to be determined.
Amid a thriving unregulated rental market and escalating property prices, affordable rentals are declining, which increases the risk of evictions. A tenant said: “Many families have been renting here for 30-40 years, but are unable to buy properties.”
Many private owners are sub-letting poorly maintained properties, waiting for large property investors to buy them out.
Another property agent said: “Many of the properties in the area are not worth their selling price, but this is what the property market does.”
The regeneration is creating a deep uncertainty in the community around their ability to buy, sell, rent or even retain their property in the area.
While the pressure around market-led evictions and profit-driven development is given further impetus by civil society, DAG’s findings resonate with the struggle for amplifying voices advocating a diverse close-knit community.
As property prices continue to become unaffordable, this community with a rich social and cultural identity will slowly fade away.
And with it the chance to demonstrate a context-specific regeneration strategy.