TAFELBERG SUBMISSION ON THE FEASIBILITY MODEL FOR SOCIAL HOUSING ON THE TAFELBERG SITE March 2017 TAFELBERG SUBMISSION ON THE FEASIBILITY MODEL FOR SOCIAL HOUSING ON THE TAFELBERG SITE March 2017 Written by Julian Sendin, Martha Sithole, Sarita Pillay, and Shaun Russell Architectural Drawings by Azraa Rawoot, Ruvimbo Moyo and Loyiso Qaqane Layout by Chad Rossouw and Azraa Rawoot Massing Model by Azraa Rawoot and Julian Sendin Financial Model by Jacus Pienaar and Julian Sendin Edited by Hopolang Selebalo, Jared Rossouw and Rich Conyngham Other comments and contributions by Malcolm Mc- Carthy, Jodi Allemeir, Lungelo Nkosi and many other professionals who requested anonymity CONTENTS ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS 5 INTRODUCTION: WHEN WILL SEGREGATION END? 6 PART ONE 7 Segregation & Affordable Housing 10 THE affordable housing crisis 17 LAND Use TracK Record IN cape town 21 Housing TracK Record IN Cape TOwn 28 Social Housing TracK Record IN Cape Town 34 Obligations: THE Constitution, Law AND Policy 39 SEA Point: THE NEED For Affordable Housing 47 Tafelberg: unjust AND unlawful sale 56 Endnotes 67 PART TWO 77 Comment on Model 83 Endnotes 93 PART THREE 97 Development concept AND principles 99 site analysis 100 Development Concept 104 French School precedent (Tafelberg Primary) 105 Base Assumptions 107 Scenario one: Traditional four-storey social housing typology 108 Scenario two: MID-rise social housing typology 110 ENDnotes 116 ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS AFR Asset Finance Reserve PERO Provincial Economic Review and Outlook BEPP Built Environment Performance Plan PPC Provincial Property Committee BLM Better Living Model PSDF Provincial Spatial Development Framework BNG Breaking New Ground RCG Restructuring Capital Grant CBD Central Business District RDP Reconstruction and Development CCDS Central City Development Strategy Programme COGTA Department of Cooperative Gov- RZ Restructuring Zone ernance and Traditional Affairs SDF Spatial Development Framework CRU Community Residential Unit SERI Socio-Economic Rights Institute CT-CCRP Cape Town Central City Regener- ation Programme SHI Social Housing Institution DHS Department of Human Settlements SHP Social Housing Programme (Western Cape) SHRA Social Housing Regulatory Au- DTPW Department of Transport and thority Public Works (Western Cape) SJC Social Justice Coalition EE Equal Education SPLUMA Spatial Planning and Land Use GIAMA Government Immovable Asset Management Act Management Act TDI Transport Development Index GMT Government Motor Transport The City The City of Cape Town IDP Integrated Development Plan The Province Western Cape Provincial Gov- IRR Internal Rate of Return ernment IUDF Integrated Urban Development TOD Trans-Oriented Development Framework TPN Tenant Profile Network LUPA Land Use Planning Act UDR Urban Design Report MP Modernisation Programme UDZ Urban Development Zone NASHO National Association for Social Housing Organisations UN-Habitat United Nations Human Settle- ments Programme NDP National Development Plan WCED Western Cape Education De- NU Ndifuna Ukwazi partment OECD Organisation for Economic Coop- WCG Western Cape Government eration and Development WCLAA Western Cape Land Adminis- PAJA Promotion of Administrative tration Act Justice Act 5 INTRODUCTION: WHEN WILL SEGREGATION END? Should poor and working-class people ever real- for social housing in Sea Point. On 15 January, istically expect to live in South Africa’s well-lo- at an Open Streets event on Bree Street, hun- cated former White areas? Premier Zille and her dreds of Capetonians articulated their support Cabinet are currently in the process of deciding by contributing to a street mural. Two weeks whether affordable housing should be built at later, close to 800 people, including many Sea the Tafelberg site in Sea Point. If they agree to Point residents, gathered on the suburb’s iconic proceed with the development, it would be the promenade for a rally in response to Province’s first intervention of its kind in Cape Town’s inner financial model and the impending decision city since apartheid. If they decline, it will keep by Cabinet. Across the board the call was clear: alive the legacy of South Africa’s toxic, racially social housing must happen on the Tafelberg segregated past. Black and Coloured domestic site, as well as other well-located public land in workers of the Atlantic seaboard will continue the inner city. to spend too many precious Rands on bus, train and taxi fares, commuting to and from work for hours every day – hours that they should be This paper has been compiled by Ndifuna spending at home with their families. Ukwazi following extensive consultation with practitioners and experts in housing finance, Cape Town’s current urban landscape is in architecture, social housing, city planning, urban urgent need of restructuring. Historically en- design, and local and provincial government. trenched segregation, mixed with unbridled Part One deals with the context of the Tafelberg financial opportunism and weak governance, is site – the history of forced removals in Sea Point; damaging the economy, environment and social the Western Cape and City of Cape Town’s cohesion. Instead of waiting for every last work- embarrassing track record in the sphere of af- ing-class resident to be forced out of the city fordable housing; the constitutional, legislative bowl and its surrounds, we should be embracing and policy frameworks which place obligations the value of affordable housing in well-located on government to de-segregate our society; and areas. It as a recipe for overturning apartheid-era the ever-increasing need for spatial justice in spatial exclusion and creating a more compact, a city overrun by financially-motivated devel- sustainable, just and equitable city. opments. Part Two is a critique of the financial Tafelberg has become a symbol of this struggle. model published last year by the Western Cape For over a year, domestic workers, carers, gar- Department of Transport and Public Works; deners, teachers, academics, housing experts, and finally, Part Three presents two alternative religious leaders, ratepayer’s associations, unions models. and students have publically demanded that the sale of the site be stopped and that, on this contested ground, social housing should be built. In June 2016, residents of the Western Cape and Cape Town from an array of backgrounds resoundingly opposed the sale of Tafelberg with thousands of submissions. Cabinet, however, was not convinced and therefore requested that the Department of Transport and Public Works produce a financial model to aid the deci- sion-making process. On 21 November 2016, it was released for public comment. The public continued to voice support PART ONE SPATIAL JUSTICE IN CAPE TOWN CONTENTS SEGREGATIon & AFFORDABLE HOUSING 10 Introduction 10 Racial segregation AND inverse density IN Cape Town 11 THE COSTS OF SPATIAL SEGREGATION 13 THE AFFORDABLE hoUSING CRISIs 17 LAND Use TRACK RECORD IN CApe Town 21 Introduction 21 THE failure of EFFECTIVE LAND management 21 THE Urban Regeneration APPROACH IN CAPE TOWN 23 Conclusion 27 HOUSING TRACK RECORD IN CApe TOwn 28 Introduction 28 THE Failure of Public Sector Housing Delivery 28 Conclusion 33 SOCIAL HOUSING TRACK RECORD IN CApe Town 34 Introduction 34 AN appropriate tool 34 Delivery of Social Housing 36 Conclusion 37 OBLIGATIons: THE ConsTITUTIon, LAW AND POLICY 39 Introduction 39 THE Constitution of THE Republic of South Africa 39 National Law AND Policy 40 Provincial Law AND Policy 43 Local Government Law AND Policy 45 Conclusion 46 SEA POINT: THE NEED FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING 47 introduction 47 Affordable housing IN SEA Point 47 SEA Point as A Model MIXED-use Suburb 49 THE Rental Property MARKet IN SEA Point 50 A good site for social housing 53 Conclusion 55 TAFELBERG: UNJUST AND UNLAWFUL SALe 56 Introduction 56 A series of failures 56 Conclusion 66 ENDnoTes 67 Part One of this submission detailed the concept of spatial justice and how it applies to the disposal of Tafelberg. It also outlines why the original disposal is unlawful. Part Two is a critique of the existing financial model which was compiled by the Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW). Part Three proposes an alternative development proposal for the site with two scenarios: one consists of four-storey, walk-up social housing units and the other is an intensification scenario with seven-storey social housing blocks. The financial details displayed are only a snapshot of a complex financial model that was produced with the assistance of number of experts in the field. The proposals below ex- plore the potential massing on the site; they are not an architectural design for the site. 9 SEGREGATION & AFFOrdablE HOUSING INTRODUCTION have accrued significant wealth, while poor and working-class people have been ex- 1 The decision to sell public land at the Tafelberg cluded – relocated to informal settlements and site in Sea Point cannot be removed from the housing estates on the periphery, or forced historical context of land dispossession and to defend their communities and neighbour- displacement in Cape Town. Cape Town is hoods from predatory developers in well-lo- “a sprawling (2,359 km²), low-density (1,520 cated areas. people per km²) and spatially fragmented city 7 As a result, we now see wealthy property 1 of 3.74 million people”. Centuries of colonial- enclaves competing on international retail and apartheid-era migrant labour, spatial markets and swathes of land handed over to planning and housing policies have left an private gated communities. Property bubbles enduring legacy. and soaring rents have meant that now only 2 While apartheid urban planning affected all the very wealthy can afford to live in Cape South African cities, it was particularly ef- Town’s well-located areas. In some neighbour- fective in Cape Town because of the city’s hoods (such as De Waterkant), whole streets unique topographical layout and racial demo- have become investment portfolios. Some are graphics. Mountains, oceans and other natural only occupied seasonally; others are perma- features were used to control the movement of nently uninhabited.