Artscape social housing development moves ahead

Founders Garden is next to the Artscape theatre complex, previously used by ZipZap Circus School. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Six years after Founders Garden in Cape Town’s city centre was approved for social housing, the Western Cape Government has started the process of appointing a developer for the site.

The site, next to the Artscape theatre complex, has been earmarked for social housing since at least 2016. In 2019, the province’s cabinet approved plans to release the 2.2-hectare site on Cape Town’s Foreshore for this purpose.

On Friday, the government published an advertisement to appoint a developer for the site.

During a media briefing at the site on Friday morning, government officials said the development will have 1,476 social housing units and 1,162 open-market units.

Social housing units are rental-only and targeted at households earning less than R22,000 per month. These developments receive once-off subsidies from the Social Housing Regulatory Authority, and rental amounts are capped at about R7,200.

The Founders Garden project will be the largest of three inner-city affordable housing developments built on land owned by the Western Cape Government. It will have four 16-storey blocks.

There will also be an early childhood development centre and a publicly accessible garden area on the property. The site is within walking distance of the MyCiTi Civic Centre Station.

The appointed developer will have to apply to the SHRA for subsidies. The SHRA has faced recent budget cuts, which may further delay funding for the development.

“This isn’t a housing project on the outskirts, which this provincial government [is] normally criticised for. People will be close to working opportunities,” said Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers at the briefing on Friday.

Premier Alan Winde said the development would be a “perfect example of a partnership” between the private sector and government. He said the project would be worth more than R2-billion.

Buhle Booi, head of political organising at housing activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi, said he cautiously welcomes the announcement, but called for the site also to include transitional housing.

He accepted that open-market units would have to be included to help cross-subsidise the affordable housing units, but said more state funding should be made available so that more lower-income households can benefit.

A sign announcing the planned Founders Garden project was unveiled on Friday. Photo: Matthew Hirsch

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