November 13, 2006
By Neil Fraser
TWO important reports on the health of the inner city are published annually. The Johannesburg Inner City Performance Indicators 2006, published by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), is due for release this week and the Trafalgar Inner City Report was released while I was overseas a few weeks back. The former is from a public sector body but is independently researched and analysed; the latter is a private sector report and the one on which this Citichat focuses. Trafalgar Reports have been published each year since 2001. Below are some of the salient facts that can be gleaned from the report:
- Typical Trafalgar tenants in Johannesburg are profiled as "African, male and more likely to be married than single". Half of them moved to the city in the last two years and almost 80 percent use public transport.
Age and family
- A quarter of the tenants are under 20 years of age;
- 37 percent are between 20 and 30;
- 31 percent are 31 to 40;
- 47 percent have children;
- 39 percent have family; and
- 14 percent have other dependants.
Education
- 46 percent have secondary education;
- 36 percent have technikon education; and
- 12 percent have a university education.
Income
- 10 percent report a household income lower than R1 500 a month;
- 40 percent report an income of between R1 500 and R3 000 a month; and
- 33 percent earn between R3 001 and R5 000 a month.
Reasons for staying in the inner city
- Proximity to work - 59 percent;
- Proximity to schools - 18 percent; and
- Affordability - 9 percent.
Other
- 38 percent moved into the city in the last two to four years;
- 16 percent plan to rent for a further year;
- 27 percent for one to three years;
- 26 percent for three to five years;
- 44 percent believe the inner city is a safe place;
- 64 percent of tenants claim their buildings are a safe place to live;
- 40 percent of tenants use local schools;
- 36 percent frequent shops;
- 25 percent patronise entertainment facilities;
- 53 percent own their own vehicles;
- 87 percent own cellphones; and
- 40+ percent use e-mail
It would be interesting to see how that profile compares to the Johannesburg Housing Company's tenant profile.
- The number of people who live in the Joburg inner city is estimated at 198 143, of which some 75 percent work in the inner city. The next largest inner city residential population appears to be Pretoria at almost 100 000 (67 percent), followed by Durban with 64 000 (78 percent) and quite well down by Cape Town at just over 26 000 (62 percent).
It would be useful to know what the report considers "inner city" in each case.
- People are flocking to South Africa's inner cities. Most earn too little to rent their own flats and slum blocks are the only affordable alternative.
- The council's housing subsidy waiting list is currently between 250 000 and 300 000 families.
- About 20 500 households living in the inner city earn less than R3 200 a month, which is the threshold for those defined as the "inner city poor".
- Rentals are touching R1 800 for a one-bedroomed flat, which is significant growth from R800 in the first report in 2001. This surprised me as I had understood that rental levels had, in fact, stayed fairly constant for a number of years - unless that is not the case with one-bedroomed units.
- Tenants and owners are demanding recreational facilities such as gyms, coffee bars and internet cafes.
- The Gautrain will bring further impetus for residential housing in the inner city and, along with it, an opportunity for further regeneration. E-Prop has predicted that at least R1,1-billion, conservatively, will be invested by the private sector around the two inner city stations, promoting higher densities. A Gautrain densification model evidently implies that this will predominantly be through empty office space being refurbished for rental accommodation with over 500 000 square metres coming on the market (between 5 000 and 6 000 units). This will clearly also demand an increase in community facilities.
- The growing demand for quality inner city accommodation is creating pockets of gentrification that are displacing the poor; "While the demand brings with it long-awaited impetus for renewal, it also has the effect of moving the problem of accommodating the poor in decent homes."
- The Europa Hotel in Hillbrow (Citichat 40/2005) is singled out as a model for social housing, providing accommodation for a variety of income levels including those who earn less than R1 500 a month.
- In the last three years, 15 inner city buildings have been renovated under the Better Buildings Programme (Citichat 39/2005), which has involved writing off about R250-million owed to the council in return for a R500-million investment.
- The programme has about 235 buildings on its list but legal and other complications have resulted in delivery being extremely slow.
- The Johannesburg high court ruling that the City council cannot evict residents of slums unless it provides alternative accommodation has slowed down rejuvenation in Johannesburg.
- Buildings that are not well maintained and managed act as magnets for organised criminals.
- The Trafalgar Report referred to a study on sectional title accommodation. It explored the link between sectional title ownership and urban decay in the inner city and the nub of the study was that "ineffective boards of trustees made inner city buildings dysfunctional. Further, poor and under-resourced building management, confused and inconsistent municipal billing systems and the application of unsatisfactory sanctions against those who do not pay for rates and services compound the problem. This affected not only individual buildings, but also the whole area as a whole, meaning owners lost the value in their properties that further undermined the incentive for sound financial management - trustees failed to set appropriate levies to cover maintenance costs and council rates. Affordability issues were more important for owners than a long-term investment in the building."
The study found that legislation made bodies corporate inherently weak because owners were compromised by wanting to minimise costs - "a short-term saving at a long-term cost".
Quoting sectional title expert Graham Paddock, the study reported that "Commercial insolvency and administrative atrophy in low-cost sectional title schemes is approaching crisis proportions on a national basis."
The good news, therefore, is that there still is a great demand that will inevitably result in more upgrading and refurbishment, leading to a greater inner city population; and Gautrain will have a positive effect by attracting even more investment.
The bad news
The bad news is, firstly, that little progress is being made to resolve the crippling sectional title crisis. Neville Schaefer, the chairman of Trafalgar, is quoted as saying, "Hundreds of sectional title buildings, on the brink of becoming sinkholes, can be saved, but this requires a three-pronged effort. The government has to rapidly increase the provision of inner city social housing; long awaited amendments must be made to the Prevention of Illegal Eviction (PIE) Act and the Sectional Titles Act must be tightened up to make sanctions more effective."
The national government is quick to blame the local government about tardiness in dealing with urban renewal but often the blame must be placed squarely at the national door. The fact is we don’t have a coherent national urban policy nor a real "home" for urban issues. Interestingly, the United Kingdom, with its well-developed economy, places urban matters in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Secondly on the bad news front, there has been no progress with regard to housing the urban poor. I was very excited to note that there was approval for the implementation of a pilot rental "shared housing" project a year back in December 2005. The relevant report to the City council pointed out that profit-driven companies or individuals would not be interested in catering for "low end" accommodation that meets building and environmental standards, as the financial returns on buildings of this type are very low when compared with more lucrative rentals charged to individuals in higher income categories.
The report, therefore, proposed that a model of affordable rental accommodation with shared facilities be "rolled out at scale", and the capital costs be borne by local and provincial governments, including using capital subsidies under the National Housing Subsidy Scheme. The proposal envisaged a number of buildings already identified in the Better Buildings Programme to be used immediately for this purpose and some R40-million was earmarked for the period 2006 to 2009, of which R5-million was to have been spent before June this year.
So what has happened? Apparently nothing - why? And who is driving the project now that Geoff Mendelowitz, who headed the Better Buildings Programme and who was one of the architects of this proposal, is no longer with the council? Again, a year is too long for matters of such critical importance merely to be left with no apparent action - again fueling the concern that inner city regeneration is no longer a council priority. I hope I am wrong.
Caio, Neil
PS: Some good news, however, is the great programme of walking tours being offered by the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust, which began at the weekend and which runs through November and December. For more information on the following, telephone Elaine Persona on week days from 9am to 1pm on 011 482 3349.
Saturday, 18 November: "Old Braamfontein"; meet at 2pm in the parking area of the Wits Theatre, off Jorissen Street, in Braamfontein. The cost is R70 a person and tickets are available at Computicket.
Saturday, 2 December: "Constitution Hill"; meet at 2pm in the parking area below the court, in Sam Hancock Street, off Queens Road, in Braamfontein. The cost is R70 a person and tickets are available at Computicket.
Saturday, 9 December: "Art Deco in the City"; meet at 2pm in Beyers Naude Square, next to the Cenotaph. Park in the Library Gardens parking garage; the entrance is off President and Simmonds streets. The cost is R70 a person and tickets are available at Computicket.
Saturday, 16 December: "Main Street Mall"; meet at 2pm in Beyers Naude Square, next to the Cenotaph. Park in the Library Gardens parking garage; the entrance off President and Simmonds streets. The cost is R70 a person and tickets are available at Computicket.
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