Neil Fraser
August 27, 2004
Urban Design
IN 1994 there was no cohesive master plan for the urban renewal of the city. Since that date a great deal has been done both in the production of an Inner City Framework, in 1999, (funded by the private sector) and, subsequently, a large number of area-specific frameworks and detailed urban designs for areas like Newtown, Chinatown, Constitution Hill, Braamfontein, etc. What has emerged over the past few years in particular, is urban design of world-class standard with a distinctly African flavour from practices such as Gapp Architects, Urban Designers, Urban Solutions, Albonico + Sack + Mzumara and many others… I reckon a good 8 out of 10!
Marketing
I don't think we've licked this yet. Certainly the improvements in certain areas are quite phenomenal. I'm thinking of the City's excellent webpage, which incidentally has great coverage of the Cities in Change conference. However, the inner city is still too often treated as the ugly sister. As was constantly raised at the Cities in Change conference last week, we aren't telling the Joburg (inner city) story because we haven't yet agreed what that is! My friend Rich Bradley from Washington DC continues to say that Joburg Inner City is Africa's best-kept secret! A recent headline in the "Sunday Times Metro": Joburg: The Forgotten City. 8 out of 10 for the Metro effort, 4 out of 10 for the Inner City!
The Role of Housing in the Inner City of Johannesburg
Over the years I have often quoted from articles or papers by others, but seldom, if ever, have I reproduced their work in full. However, there were some papers that were delivered at the Cities in Change conference this month that were so pertinent to what we are striving for, that merely summarising them would not do any justice. From time to time over the next few months I will reproduce a few of them in Citichat, particularly those I believe to be relevant to where we are at. The following is the paper entitled "Claiming the City - The Role of Housing in the Inner City of Johannesburg" presented by Murphy Morobe, the chairperson of the Johannesburg Housing Company. Morobe was prominent in the UDF during the latter part of the struggle period, was the first Gauteng Provincial Secretary and has recently been appointed to the Office of the President.
Apartheid cities were built on spatial dislocation, social dysfunction, and economic inefficiency. This legacy remains deeply embedded not only on the physical imprint of the post apartheid city, but also in the mindset of those who live and work there. As importantly, the legacy lingers on in the minds of many of those who manage the city.
Most critics of the apartheid city, and much of the work directed at overcoming this legacy, focus on the spatial and the economic. Their efforts directed at these two important legs of urban reform cannot succeed in the long run unless the social dysfunction is moved to the centre point of all urban regeneration activity. An analysis of the social dimensions of the work of the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC), alongside the contributions it has made on the spatial and economic regeneration of the Johannesburg Inner City, are, after nine years of operation, starting to reveal some important insights.
The Johannesburg Housing Company
JHC was born during the mid-1990s, into a sector of the industry characterised by urban decay, crime and grime and residential and commercial flight out of the inner city. The profile of those living in the inner city was changing from both a racial and income perspective. The popular image of an anarchic inner city with rent boycotts, overcrowding, poor, if any, building management and maintenance was at its height. Owners of inner-city buildings were willing sellers, and established property managers were discarding their inner-city portfolios.
How, in this environment, has JHC fared?
A detailed profile of JHC is provided in Appendix One. Suffice to say at this point that over the past nine years we have invested R220 million into creating an additional eight percent of housing stock in the inner city for low and moderate income earners. All of our 17 buildings are mixed-income communities. Support, by the over 4 000 occupants of our projects, for the location, quality of accommodation and management of the properties is shown by our low vacancy, arrears and bad debt levels all of which have been below the five percent level for the entire period of our operation.
At a financial level, JHC's income covers all operational costs and we are able now to service commercial debt. JHC was the first social housing company to break the proverbial red line by concluding loans for inner city projects from commercial banks. This augurs well for the normalisation of investment into the Johannesburg inner city. What are some of the ingredients for this success to date?
Urban Regeneration
The impact of JHC on the urban environment is easy to see. JHC buildings stand out on any scan of a city block. They look clean and well maintained. Security systems controlling entry and exit are in place and have prevented overcrowding. Cleaning and maintenance are a daily function of the management of the building. Urban regeneration is therefore not only based on the physical regeneration of stock. It requires the daily attention of ensuring proper and effective management of the buildings. Most importantly, it requires the domino effect other buildings to be involved in the cycle of refurbishment and proper management and maintenance. And increasingly, adjacent buildings are following our example. The domino effect is alive and well in the inner city.
In the JHC context, it is difficult to talk about urban regeneration without mentioning the Brickfields project. From a scale and impact point of view, this 650-unit development will dramatically change the physical, social and economic environment of the Newtown area. The impact of Brickfields is massively enhanced because it takes place within a major investment initiative by Provincial and Local government. This, of course, points to the need for such support if urban regeneration is to take place at scale. What Brickfields under JHC management adds to the mix is the social elements discussed later in this paper.
Local Economic Development
Again, the impact of JHC's work is obvious, and measurable. In many situations, we have changed liabilities of the City of Johannesburg, into income-generating accounts and are currently paying R5,8 million per annum to the City Treasurer for rates, services and utilities. Given that these charges are the major source of income for the City, the importance of creating model corporate citizens in the inner city cannot be under-estimated.
Many of the property management functions, such as cleaning and security, have low entry thresholds which still allow for the provision of excellent services. At the same time, more specialised functions in the plumbing and electrical trades have allowed previously disadvantaged contractors to benefit from JHCs black empowerment procurement policies. 48 percent of JHC's service providers are previously disadvantaged contractors, earning 82 percent of the management costs. We estimated that up to 1 000 people are directly or indirectly employed through JHC contracts.
JHC construction contracts have also given rise to a substantial number of jobs at all levels in the construction industry. Added to this, is the training requirement of any construction contract which requires the contractor to provide a certain number of trainees. Not only has this given around 300 unskilled and semi skilled labourers training, but has also supported emerging training companies which have been used to provide the training.
Finally, one should not under-estimate the importance of the development of JHC itself as a caring, efficient and professional property management, property development and community development agency. In part, the demise of Johannesburg's inner city was caused by the absence of proper management and management systems. JHC had to start from scratch to build up the skills, systems, staff and professional business style which now has a life of its own. The level of training and development required to run inner-city properties should not be under-estimated. Many of our colleagues in both the social and for-profit residential markets have done so to their peril.
Community development is an integral part of JHC's management system. We have always worked on the assumption that our long-term work is to build communities. This is not an easy task, given the hostile environment within which we work; the historical suspicion of landlords operating in the inner city, the diverse backgrounds from which tenants come, and the relative newness of their experience in the inner city. Despite this, a variety of activities have contributed to providing a harmonious, safe and secure living environment.
The activities of the community development officer are numerous and have ranged from a referral system for those requiring individual counseling and advice, to life skills training for adults and children in the areas of financial skills, HIV/Aids, social relationships etc, to social audits of new building projects to ensure that there are adequate social facilities in the area, to facilitating the provision of such facilities (e.g. creches) close to our buildings.
Social Dysfunction
While all of the above are necessary ingredients in normalising the inner city, they are not sufficient. The key is in the very elusive concept of social values. What is it that broke down during the 1980s in the inner city that led to the chaos described earlier? There is no doubt that the neglect by local authority in providing services and policing by-laws contributed.
There is no doubt that the loss of control of increasingly overcrowded buildings by poor people desperate for accommodation played a role. The increase in crime and grime, the absence of a police presence, and political will, and the greed of some landlords, even some self appointed landlords, who saw an opportunity to maximise profit in the short window of the transition, all contributed.
But the key to both the demise of residential accommodation, and its resurrection, is to be found in comments from focus groups in an independent customer service survey commissioned by JHC.
Responsible residents stick to the rules most of the time. This is different from other buildings in the inner city. In JHC buildings, tenants are more disciplined and respect the rules.
Respondents described their relations with neighbours as friendly and co-operative, but in comparison with township culture, neighbours are not as closely knit
Security appears tight at JHC buildings. This allows not only for safe accommodation, but also for parents to feel comfortable about their children spending time alone at home after school.
What we are seeing is the resurrection of a value-based residential environment in the inner city. Nurtured and protected by the physical buildings, efficient, caring and professional management, and effective security systems (a must-have in the inner city), JHC buildings are starting to develop a culture of responsibility for a home in the city. And in our view, that is the key to our current success, and our insurance for the future. Communities built on these values will provide a sustainable contribution to rebuilding the Johannesburg inner city.
The Contradiction of Development
Over the past few years, the Johannesburg inner city has, and continues to undergo constant transformation. The positive public image over the past 18 months merely reflects deeper changes. Certainly investment is returning to the inner city in both the commercial and residential spheres. Such investment is by the public and the private sector. Certainly stability has returned to many buildings and the normal functions of payment of rent, tenant turnover and where necessary, eviction, is taking place. Certainly the City is starting to re-assert its authority in relation to the management of service payments, health by-laws, taxis and hawkers.
The weekly edition of CitiChat, Neil Fraser's lively and informative newsletter, is a regular reality check on both the progress, the promise and the limits to that progress. Of course we are expecting the City to do more, we would need far better policing and response times than is currently the case. However, the general trajectory is positive.
But, the blind spot in this increasing formalisation of the inner city, and the increasing management of the social and financial terrain, is to threaten the presence of the poor. The eviction of people in dilapidated buildings without alternative accommodation deprives not only gangster landlords of a captive income, but also decent, honest people of the cheapest accommodation available.
The imposition of regular water and electricity supplies adds up to 15 percent to the cost of living in the city; a burden if you are earning less than R3 500 as almost 80 percent of South Africans do. The regulation of the streets deprives hundreds of families of the meagre income they receive from peddling sweets or vegetables. This blind spot, caused by the necessary processes of development, undermines the very development in whose name it is being done.
There is, of course, no malice or conspiracy in this contradiction. It is the very nature of development. However, currently the activities of the City Managers show no awareness of an inevitable consequence of development. Control and financial management remain the drivers. There is no major subsidy for electricity. There is no rebate policy on rates, or bulk service charges for inner-city developments. There is no requirement that the social facilities so necessary for any new development will be provided. There is not enough support for the disciplines necessary to enforce building management, including rent payments, proper maintenance and management from either the City, the Province or the National Authorities.
And aside from Newtown, there are no major initiatives which will see urban regeneration on the scale that we see in Newtown. The promise of the Better Buildings Programme is undone by the massive delays caused by those city managers more concerned with pursuing historical arrears, than future income streams. In its four years of operation, the programme has yielded perhaps two buildings which have been renovated and are now providing accommodation. So, while the policy intention is there, the ability to translate this into action is either lacking, or where it takes place, has the effect of marginalising the poor.
In Conclusion
We are seeing the beginning of the reversal of the apartheid city. The lessons of the JHC experience for those charged with overseeing the process in both the private and the public sectors have been discussed in this paper. They relate to putting the social dimension at the centre of the development process, and to being alert to the inherent contradiction in this process. Our City Fathers in particular need to take heed, and to ensure that policy is translated into pro-poor practice.
Powerful stuff and much food for thought and action!
