Due to the history of colonialism and apartheid, cities in South Africa are some of the most unequal and segregated. Social housing has been essential to ensuring equal access to affordable housing in South African cities, and is one of the few tools available to counter the geography of apartheid. Yet, the implementation of social housing policies has only further that spatial, and therefore economic and racial, separation. Over the past two and a half decades, social housing has displayed a “spatial drift,” as projects move out of the central cities and towards the peripheries of urban areas.
To improve social housing policies, the government should regularly update subsidy levels, provide development finance, and make under-utilized public land available for housing. It is also necessary to partner with local city governments to target central city locations, and increase technical capacity of social housing agencies.
Source:
AFD. (2021) Social Housing and Spatial Inequality in South African Cities. AFD.
Link: https://www.afd.fr/en/dpp41va-social-housing-spatial-inequality-south-african-cities-salensonÂ