7 September 2007

THE City of Cape Town's R208 million hostel redevelopment project to turn apartheid-era single sex hostels into family units is almost complete. And 64 recipients of the 564 units in Zone 26 Langa have already received their keys.

The City's Dibanisa Iintsapho Hostels Redevelopment story begins in 1984 when initial meetings were held in the hostel communities and they formed an organization to motivate for the upgrading of their dwellings - the Western Cape Hostel Dwellers Association.

They consulted professionals such as Professor Julian Cooke at the Architecture Department at the University of Cape Town, Dr Mamphele Ramphele, adv Lee Bozalek and adv. Wallace Mgoqi to discuss the possibility of converting the hostels from men-only units to family accommodation.

They succeeded in persuading the Cape Town municipality to accept the role of developer and, in 1993, the first demonstration units were built. Four years later the first show units were completed.

"Their motivation was simple but immensely significant," says Seth Maqetuka, director of strategy, support and coordination in the City's housing directorate. "They wanted their men-only hostels to be converted to accommodate families. This led them to campaign under the banner 'Dibanisa Iintsapho' (Uniting families). Their ultimate goal was to improve their living conditions and to restore their dignity which had been undermined by apartheid".

The hostel redevelopment project is one of the largest projects in the City. It is estimated that an excess of 9 000 families currently residing in and around hostels eventually need to be housed.

The programme has achieved a significant visible impact. In the three programme areas, Langa, Gugulethu and Nyanga, entire street blocks have been converted into family accommodation. This has confirmed the significance of the project as a model urban renewal intervention that encompasses the ideals set out in the Hostel Redevelopment Programme of the National Department of Housing.

In a recent best practices booklet published by the national department, the case study on the programme is recognized as setting a ' ... precedent (that) could be usefully applied to the 600 000 hostel beds countrywide'.

Funding for the project comes from National Housing Funds (approximately 60%) and the balance from accumulated capital funds from the City.

"The project is an extremely complicated and complex one, with the huge number of interested and affected parties having achieved consensus and made progress in a difficult operational environment," says executive director housing Hans Smit.

"We had to redevelop men-only housing that accommodated approximately 14000 men in municipally owned, bed rental dormitory units into family flats. To achieve this, entire residential areas have been re-designed, the floor area of buildings doubled by infill, infrastructure improvements made and space for economic activity created."

Source: capetown.gov.za