The City of Cape Town says it has secured heritage approval for its biggest inner city social housing development of around 700 units at the former Woodstock Hospital.
The property, now known as Cissie Gool House, by housing
advocacy group Reclaim the City, is already occupied. The
City has previously moved to evict the approximately 900 residents of Cissie
Gool House, and police have raided the property a number of times.
PICTURE: Matthew HirschHeritage Western Cape has given the City of Cape Town the
green light for its plan to develop social housing at the old Woodstock
hospital.
According to GroundUp, the City initiated eviction
proceedings in 2019.
In a statement on Monday, Cape Town Mayor, Geordin
hill-Lewis, welcomed the announcement.
‘’Landing well-located affordable housing is a complex
undertaking that finds itself between several fires: inadequate national
subsidies; the unlawful occupation of project sites; and the obstacle of Cape
Town's largest, best-located properties being under national government
ownership.’’
‘’The Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA), which
administers national subsidies, does not have the budget to support the social
housing sector at scale. This is impacting social housing companies who are
struggling to complete the construction of viable projects once the City has
released land to them.’’
‘’Raised subsidies, and concrete commitments to releasing
the national mega-properties, will go a long way to massively scaling up social
housing rollout in Cape Town,’’ added Hill-Lewis.
Reclaim The City says the City of Cape Town is wrong to
claim that its members or activists who have occupied certain buildings are
responsible for the delays in building low cost housing units in the inner
city.
Done By: Mitchum George
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