Policy is not enough to address the issues

What is needed are clear objectives and targets FOCUS ON INCLUSIONARY HOUSING

INCLUSIONARY housing – a scheme to include affordable units within new developments – is a critical and intensely debated issue in Cape Town. However, stakeholders are realising, after some failed attempts, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Experts say while there are policies in place, these alone are not good enough. They warn that unless pivotal matters – relating to the supply of housing that is affordable for low- to- moderate- income residents within developments – are addressed, it will never become a reality.

Patricia de Lille, talking at a Cape Times breakfast earlier this week, touted inclusionary housing as a first for the country and as one of the ways to help address apartheid spatial planning. Stumbling blocks, she said, were to be expected as the city grappled with how best to take on this model.

Rashiq Fataar, founder of independent think- tank Future Cape Town, believes what is needed for the scheme to succeed are:

Clear objectives and targets.

Priority status given to innovative pilot projects in the inclusionary housing space.

Regular co-operation and collaboration between all role players, including local government, developers, designers, banks and communities.

The City of Cape Town has acknowledged that the “dire need” for housing for the city’s most vulnerable households is the biggest challenge it is facing, and arose from apartheid spatial planning that consigned the majority of Capetonians to settlements far from work opportunities. Added to this there was little or no investment made to stimulate economic activity in these areas.

In 2017, as a means to address the issue, the City earmarked five sites in the city centre for a mixture of affordable housing development. It is also developing a strategy for the provision of housing opportunities in smaller inner-cities.

But while the intentions may be honourable, Fataar believes the focus of inclusionary housing has been wrong.

He says mechanisms to increase, and supply, this housing across diverse income brackets is needed. An inclusionary housing policy alone is not going to achieve delivery of affordable housing by the private sector in well-located areas, he says.

“While policy is essential, it does not deliver units on the ground within a defined period of time.

“Inclusionary housing policies should not necessarily focus on prescribing minimum percentages of affordable housing units to be included in developments, such as 20%, as these percentages are often arbitrary and may be unrealistic, depending on the project. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.”

Deon van Zyl, chairman of the Western Cape Property Development Forum (WCPDF) and director of Al&A, a local development and project management company, says the debate in Cape Town should be about provision of affordable accommodation for people who do not earn enough to access conventional housing opportunities but do contribute to the economy, and breaking down the historic apartheid legacy of urban planning that remains entrenched to this day.

“Local authorities are grappling to define their own roles in addressing these two debates.”

Property economist Erwin Rode, of Rode & Associates, says the purpose of an inclusionary housing programme is to increase the number of units built for low-income categories, and promote the integration of socio-economic classes. In its attempts to do that, the City of Johannesburg has proposed a policy which will compel developers to provide a minimum of 20% lowand middle-income housing units in each new residential development.

The 80:20 housing development concept sees developers: