The Pickwick site, located in Salt River, is 3.2 hectares in size, and is expected to deliver roughly 1 800 homes, including 840 social housing apartments and 960 market rate apartments. Picture: City of Cape Town
Housing activist group Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) has called on the City to speed up progress on the Pickwick site in Salt River for the development of mixed-income housing, as the proposal for the site to be used for affordable housing has been in the works for over a decade.
The Pickwick site, located in Salt River, is 3.2 hectares in size, and is expected to deliver roughly 1 800 homes, including 840 social housing apartments and 960 market rate apartments, the City said.
The City had announced the release of the land for a development council meeting on Wednesday, stating that it would include 840 social rental units for families earning under R22 000 per month and on-site amenities including a crèche, playgrounds, clubhouse, and swimming pool.
NU said that they have been advocating for the release of public land and the development of affordable housing for many years, and it is encouraging to see another project move closer to construction.
“That said, we must also note that Pickwick was first proposed as a site for affordable housing as far back as 2008, and that progress on this site and others will need to be a lot faster to make a real impact. What is also significant, is that the City’s new guidelines for releasing land for affordable housing are now in effect and have been used to increase the number of social housing apartments included in the Pickwick development. As always, it is crucial to maximise both the number of affordable homes and to ensure that they cater to people on low incomes so that projects assist those who really need them.
In the past, a lack of clarity around the land release process has led to several errors and been used by opponents of affordable housing to stifle progress,” said the organisation.
Mayco member for Human settlements, Carl Pophaim, said that the City has over 6 500 social housing units in the pipeline across 50 land parcels city-wide.
“We’re about to start tenanting at the 1 000-unit Goodwood Station social housing project, where the City provided development grant funding, land for parking, and various incentives to enable this development,” he said.
Cape Times