{
  "id": 16998355,
  "title": "Activists concerned that Cape Town’s “affordable” housing will not be affordable",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/29/activists-concerned-that-cape-towns-affordable-housing-will-not-be",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-29T02:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "GroundUp",
    "slug": "groundup",
    "url": "https://groundup.org.za/article/activists-concerned-that-cape-towns-affordable-housing-will-not-be-affordable/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Activists in Cape Town are worried that the city's \"affordable\" housing plans won't be accessible to those who need it most. In July, the Constitutional Court ruled that the city and the Western Cape government have a legal responsibility to provide well-located affordable housing as a way to address apartheid's spatial planning. This came after a decade-long campaign by Reclaim the City and Ndifuna Ukwazi for affordable housing in the city's inner regions. In October, both the city and province submitted reports to the High Court outlining their plans for affordable housing. So far, just under 6,700 affordable housing units have been built across the metropolis, yet none are located in the central business district. The city intends to construct about 28,400 affordable homes on city-owned land, some of which has been or still needs to be sold to developers. However, the majority of these projects are non-subsidized \"affordable\" housing meant for households earning below R34,800 monthly. Non-subsidized affordable housing will be built on state land sold to private developers at a significant discount, contingent upon the developments including affordable housing and cross-subsidized by market-rate flats and shops. The city claims it had to shift from state-subsidized social housing due to the Social Housing Regulatory Authority's failure to fund its projects; none on city-released land have been paid to developments since 2021. An attorney for Ndifuna Ukwazi Law Centre, Zamuxolo Gulwa, warns that the R34,800 income ceiling could prioritize housing for families \"on the higher end of this range, dramatically limiting social and economic integration of the CBD.\" Gulwa asks the city and province to disclose their plans, including income bands, contracts with developers, rental management systems, and enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance.",
  "summary": "Applicants in the Tafelberg case say private-sector “affordable” housing is no substitute for social housing",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "IOL",
        "title": "‘We live hand to mouth’: Cape Town EPWP workers allegedly unpaid for six weeks",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/28/we-live-hand-to-mouth-cape-town-epwp-workers-allegedly-unpaid-for-six",
        "published": "2026-10-28T19:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}