New social enterprise business model and strategy enables growth sustainability

ANTHEA HOUSTON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, COMMUNICARE Decades of calls for the provision of affordable housing have not resolved housing problems in the city. Most of Cape Town’s people continue to live in townships with under-resourced schools, clinics and police stations. Worse yet, many are in informal settlements that offer little dignity with only basic access to running water and sanitation. The social injustice of these living conditions is self- evident when we consider Cape Town’s wealth and the course of history which disenfranchised many people, stripping them of their land and property in places like Sea Point, District Six, Claremont, Ndabeni and Simonstown.

Working in tandem with this separate development, the state’s policies on separate education and job preservation secured the economic exclusion of the majority of people. Finding an effective path out of this economic exclusion is one of the most urgent challenges facing South Africa today. in affordable housing in locations such as Brooklyn, Bothasig and Steenberg, close to public transport and economic opportunity. This has helped to reverse the legacy of apartheid-era spatial planning. Regrettably, social housing delivery is on the decline due to regulatory constraints. City Council’s ongoing commitment developing social housing in Salt River.

With such high level support we are confident that the feasibility study we are packaging for the City on their Salt River Market property can proceed as an inclusive project that pushes against the tide of gentrification.