Development to cost the poor

AS PROPERTY developers boast of creating contemporary housing and workspaces in Salt River, it’s the poor who will pay the ultimate price.

So says activist organisation and law centre Ndifuna Ukwazi’s researcher Hopolang Selebalo, who criticised what he called the slow pace at which affordable housing was being made available in the area.

The criticism came after Investicore managing director Dawie Swart and Construct Capital managing director Ryan Wintle yesterday issued a statement based on their research that Salt River was part of a R20 billion urban renewal initiative across Cape Town.

Swart said he secured 13 Brickfield Road in May 2015 and, with Construct Capital, a property finance and development company, redeveloped it into a “mixed commercial and retail space” housing Deckle Edge, Bootleggers and the Woodstock Bakery.

“I aim to create an environment that can accommodate an eclectic mix of businesses to serve the area – from a chef’s academy, art supply store and restaurants to innovative tech companies and other creative industries,” Swart said.

He added he had already redeveloped an old textile building at 97 Durham Avenue, now the home to Red and Yellow advertising school; Zando; The Creamery; Get Wine; and Devil’s Peak Taproom.

Swart said Salt River lent itself to redevelopment better than Woodstock, as industrial properties were usually larger, so the land assembly process was “easier and less invasive to existing residential residents”.

Wintle said that when they started converting buildings in Salt River it was difficult to get people to “see their vision”, which required “innovative funding solutions”.

“Financial backers were wary of funding developments in areas like Salt River, preferring to focus on more established nodes, but this has changed significantly over the last couple of years,” he said.

Selebalo said gentrification had for a long time, and continued, to exclude the poor.

As property prices continued to soar, long-time residents would be forced out of the area as they would no longer to able to live there.

Poorer people who wished to live closer to the city also stood no chance if the trend continued, she said.

“If we are to dismantle apartheid’s spatial planning we must include affordable housing in these areas. It’s the City’s trend to place evicted residents on the periphery, far from everything they need,” Selebalo said.

The City will next month announce a “radical, gamechanging strategy” for the provision of affordable housing opportunities, Mayco member for Transport and Urban Development Brett Herron said yesterday.

The City is currently seeking additional social-housing partners to accelerate the provision of affordable housing opportunities on well-located land across the city.

“I will announce the full package of plans on July 18, save to say that the housing projects we are planning will provide a few thousand opportunities to lower-income households in those areas.

“The strategy is aimed at expediting the delivery of these opportunities and to provide residents in need with housing opportunities close to where they work and in close proximity to public transport.

“We are currently finalising the prospectus for these development proposals and will be ready to share our vision for this area with the local residents, NGOs, stakeholders and other interested and affected parties within the next four weeks,” Herron said.

Long-time Salt River resident Nabiweya Kamaldien said property developers and estate agencies often visited the area to do door-to-door checks on whether people would be willing to sell their properties.

Kamaldien has lived in Kipling Street for more than 50 years and said she had been offered R1.6m for her three-bedroom house, but refused to sell.

“We bought this house from my dad 30 years ago and we are happy here. It is close to town and central to everything we need,” Kamaldien said.

The fact that development was happening around her did not really affect her. However, Kamaldien said she did not know what the future held.

THE artists, hipsters and open-minded come first. They rent rundown but charming and historic homes, and loft spaces close to the urban core.

The empty houses get restored. Trendy coffee shops appear, and it becomes safer on the streets. Then rents and home prices sky-rocket.

The neo-liberal, diversity-loving creative types who became the first wave of gentrifiers give way to higher earners; your lawyers, bankers and IT folk.

The rent and home prices rise even more, and the rest of the lower-income residents are forced out.

We’ve seen how gentrification displaces the poor as the rich move in; how old buildings are upgraded for new businesses to pull in. In Salt River and Woodstock, it’s happening at a rapid pace.

Salt River has always been the industrial heart of Cape Town. The suburb had been labelled as a “coloured area” during apartheid. It has a rich history as a working-class suburb with its steel, locomotive and textile industries.

The area is also religiously diverse, with Christian and Muslim families living happily together. This is all set to change soon, though, with developers licking their lips as they zone in on it.

Investicore, which has already had its hand in redeveloping the area, issued a statement yesterday that Salt River was part of a R20 billion urban renewal initiative across Cape Town. Managing director Dawie Swart said Salt River lent itself to redevelopment better than Woodstock as industrial properties tend to be larger than in Woodstock, “meaning that the land-assembly process is easier and less invasive to existing residential residents”.

To diminish the exclusionary impact of gentrification, the city plans to implement a number of low-cost housing initiatives in the area. Next month a “radical, game-changing strategy” for the provision of affordable housing opportunities will be announced, mayoral committee member for transport and urban development Brett Herron said.

Ndifuna Ukwazi researcher Hopolang Selebalo believes the poor don’t stand a chance. If the trend continues, Selebalo’s sentiments will become a sad reality. We can only hope the city’s plan protects Salt River’s residents from being uprooted to move far away from the only place they know as home.