Urban contestations for housing: Reclaiming and deracialising Cape Town’s inner city

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Date

2022

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of the Western Cape

Abstract

On the last weekend of March 2017, members of the Reclaim the City movement occupied two vacant government buildings: The old Woodstock Hospital on Mountain Road, Woodstock and Helen Bowden Nurses Home, located just about five minutes’ walk to one of Cape Town’s major tourist attractions, the V & A Waterfront. Following protracted contestations against the sale of the Tafelberg site in Sea Point, the Western Cape government committed both sites to address socio-spatial segregation through the development of affordable housing for the low-income families in Cape Town. Reclaim the City then occupied these buildings to put the government to account. Five years later, these occupations are meeting real housing needs.

Description

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS)

Keywords

Urban squatting, Housing development, Segregation, Cape Town City, Social development

Citation