The City of Cape Town has secured heritage approval for its biggest inner-city social housing development of around 700 units at the former Woodstock Hospital.
This follows shortly after tenanting commenced at the City’s 204-unit Maitland Mews social housing development earlier this year.
Also read: Tenants move into the Maitland Mews social housing development
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that the heritage approval for social housing at the Woodstock Hospital was a welcome progress towards its goal of faster, affordable housing land release in well-located parts of the city.
In the first year of its priority programme, five inner city land parcels totalling over 1 300 social housing units reached critical land release milestones:
- Newmarket Street (Cape Town) – 200 social housing units
- Salt River Market (Salt River) – 215 social housing units
- Pickwick (Salt River) – 600 social housing units
- Fruit and Veg (CBD) – 180 social housing units
- Earl Street (Woodstock) – 160 social housing units
The City said it aims for several more by the end of this year.
‘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,’ said Hill-Lewis in a statement.
700 social housing units approved for Woodstock Hospital! 🏢🌿
This is a major step towards delivering more affordable housing in well-located areas.
The biggest obstacle remains the illegal occupation of the building.https://t.co/xtL8rmvBtW pic.twitter.com/IAXbyAANiD
— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) July 31, 2023
Cape {town} Etc discount: Looking for things to do in the city, at half the price? Get exclusive offers here.
The mayor said that although the city now had approval, it still needed to deal with illegal occupants at the site who had been living there since 2017.
Both the Woodstock Hospital property and the provincially owned Helen Bowden Nurses Home were subjected to orchestrated building hijackings by Ndifuna Ukwazi’s Reclaim the City campaign in early 2017, following government’s announcement of plans to develop social housing there.
In October 2018, the Western Cape High Court granted an order interdicting and restraining Reclaim the City from ‘inciting persons to enter or be upon the property for the purpose of unlawfully occupying or invading’.
Alderman James Vos, acting MMC for human settlements, said ‘there are now pending eviction proceedings following the Western Cape granting the City an order to survey the number and individual circumstances of the occupants’.
‘We are determined to proceed with the planning and development of social housing and we are taking seriously our engagement with the unlawful occupants to unlock social development housing in the shortest possible time at this critical location,’ concluded the City.
Explore Cape Town and its surroundings with these incredible deals on cars for under 100k. Find car listings here.
Also read:
Picture: @geordinhl / Twitter