Reviving Our Inner Cities: Social Housing and Urban Regeneration In South Africa

Research Series published by the Housing Development Agency.
nasho.org.za. 2013

Social housing in South Africa is a government programme to redress the old apartheid spatial inequities by providing low- and moderate-income households with good quality and affordable rental housing opportunities in well-located parts of South African cities. Its primary mechanism is the use of Restructuring Capital Grant (RCG) and Institutional Subsidy funding sources in Restructuring Zones (RZs) to assist in the financing and development of good quality rental housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income households by accredited social housing entities.

The restructuring capital grant
In the first 6 years of allocation from 2006 to March 2012, an estimated R1.204bn of RCG was allocated to projects. It is now appropriate therefore to reflect on the spatial spend of this financing and its impact on urban restructuring and urban regeneration within South African cities with the intent of recommending ways of enhancing the impact.

Restructuring Zones (rZs)
In looking at this, it is important to understand that during the above period the initially determined Restructuring Zones (RZs) were limited to 13 municipalities spread across all 9 provinces. Within these municipalities there was a diverse range of locally defined spatial areas – RZs.
Some of these and the resulting projects might or might not be linked specifically to zones for restructuring the apartheid city or areas dealing with urban regeneration of blighted parts of the city.

"The number of people living in urban areas will increase ever rapidly. Urbanization – the demographic transition from rural to urban – is associated with shifts from an agriculture-based economy to mass industry, technology and services. For the first time ever, the majority of the world’s population lives in a city, and this proportion continues to grow. A hundred years ago, 2 out of every 10 people lived in an urban area. By 1990, less than 40% of the global population lived in a city, but as of 2010, more than half of all people live in an urban area. By 2030, 6 out of every 10 people will be living in a city, and by 2050, this number will have increased to 7 out of 10 people. Currently, around half of all urban dwellers live in cities with between 100.000 – 500.000 people, and fewer than 10% of urban dwellers live in mega cities (defined by UN HABITAT as a city with a population of more than 10 million)."
– Quote: World Health Organization

Support

Rozenberg Quarterly does not receive subsidies or grants of any kind, which is why your financial support in maintaining, expanding and keeping the site running is always welcome. You may donate any amount you wish and all donations go toward maintaining and expanding this website.

10 euro donation:
20 euro donation:
Or donate any amount you like:
Or:
ABN AMRO Bank
Rozenberg Publishers
IBAN NL65 ABNA 0566 4783 23
BIC ABNANL2A
reference: Rozenberg Quarterly

If you have any questions or would like more information, please see our About page or contact us: info@rozenbergquarterly.com

Reviving Our Inner Cities: Social Housing and Urban Regeneration In South Africa

You May Also Like

Redesigning Cities Could Solve Our Biggest Problems. But We're Hardly Talking About Them.

Jordan Heller ~ One Of America’s Poorest Cities Has A Radical Plan To Remake Itself

Rebecca Dalzell ~ A City To Grow Into

Anna Kučírková ~ Millions Face The Life-Threatening Dangers Of Poor Sanitation

Susan Parnell ~ Urban Planet

Maeve McClenaghan ~ A Hundred Homeless People Have Died Since October But No-One Is Asking Why

Comments

Affordable Housing Forum

Recent AHF articles

Random AHF articles – refresh page to renew

Search this site

About

Support

Like us on Facebook

Archives