A stranger arriving at the Cape Town International Airport and driving to the City along the N2 highway will immediately see one of Cape Town’s most pressing problems: housing. At the moment there is an estimated 430.000 families on the waiting list for a house. The provincial budget for building houses is only R350 million, which will build about 9.000 houses a year. The biggest housing projects in the region is the N2 Gateway Project that was started 2005. The many people waiting for the houses to be built live in temporary housing areas such as Symphony Way Temporary Relocation Area (also known as Blikkiesdorp as this is Afrikaans for Tin Town) in Delft. This “camp” is however not temporary as many residents have stayed here for up to 3 years. Blikkiesdorp has an estimated 10000 residents and more tin constructions are being built. A community has been established, shops opened and entrepreneurship sprouting under difficult circumstances. Some organisations are concentrating their efforts on tuberculosis sufferers and others in need of medical and social assistance. The tin shacks present a unique risk with the lack of proper insulation – thus the spaces are often very cold or very hot with little ventilation.
This series cover both Blikkiesdorp, the Blue Downs area that will house many of the relocated residents and the construction of RDP houses.
