The breakdown of community: an examination of the social effects of low-income housing developments in Johannesburg and Cape Town
| dc.contributor.author | Williams, Jennifer A. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-02-07T13:24:59Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-02-07T13:24:59Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016 | |
| dc.description | Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Although the South African government has delivered millions of subsidized houses, several challenges remain in order to more fully integrate low-income residents into the mainstream of urban life. Many new arrivals to housing developments in South Africa come from informal settlements, where they have developed social capital, networks of trust, and livelihoods. A great concern with slum clearance and relocation projects is that new housing developments disrupt the pre-existing sense of community, which is crucial for quality of life. Objectives My research examines the ways in which low-income housing approaches, specifically the government subsidized housing programs in South Africa – the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and People’s Housing Process (PHP) – influence residents’ sense of community. This paper focuses on the lived experiences of low-income residents, which are indeed linked to housing and the built environment. I will examine residents’ sense of community in the RDP section of Cosmo City and Diepsloot (sites in northern Johannesburg), the PHP housing in Freedom Park (in Mitchell’s Plain, a western township in Cape Town), and apartment walk-ups in Springfield Terrace close to the Cape Town central business district. Three of these housing sites are located along the urban fringe (with the exception of Springfield Terrace), estranged from social services and job opportunities. | |
| dc.description.version | publishedVersion | en |
| dc.identifier.isbn | 978-85-7785-551-1 | |
| dc.identifier.pageNumber | 393-397 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/2599 | |
| dc.language.iso | English | en |
| dc.publisher | AESOP | en |
| dc.rights | openAccess | en |
| dc.rights.license | All Rights Reserved | en |
| dc.source | Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south | en |
| dc.title | The breakdown of community: an examination of the social effects of low-income housing developments in Johannesburg and Cape Town | |
| dc.type | conferenceObject | en |
| dc.type.version | publishedVersion |