Maitland Garden Village
DAG has been partnering with local civic organisations and the Maitland Garden Village Housing Forum over the last six years in their efforts to advocate for affordable and well-located housing as a solution to their housing crisis, which is characterised by large scale backyarding. A 2020 enumeration suggested that the rapid rise in backyarding within MGV is due to young families not being able to afford property or not qualifying for mortgage, often as a result of earning little to no income. In 2021, the City of Cape Town partnered with the MGV Housing Forum to identify strategic parcels of land for affordable housing projects which could house backyarders.
Over the last couple of years, DAG has collaborated with the Maitland Garden Village Housing Forum, to co-design an inclusive 10-year housing strategy. This strategy aims to speak to backyard rental accommodation issues and new affordable housing developments, whilst also responding to issues of heritage and local livelihoods. This strategy has been developed through interactive and community-driven participatory research processes, including enumerations, land audits, neighbourhood profiles and site development plans. The strategy will be a critical tool for the MGV Housing Forum to establish key partnerships with the City of Cape Town.
What we do
In collaboration with the Maitland Garden Village Housing Forum, DAG is working on a co-design process for an inclusive 10-year housing strategy which responds to issues pertaining to backyard rental accommodation and new affordable housing developments, whilst also responding to issues of heritage and local livelihoods.
Housing Strategy
DAG provides continued support to the Maitland Garden Village (MGV) Housing Forum, which was established in 2019.
In late 2021, the City of Cape Town committed to establishing a Maitland Project Steering Committee (PSC) which includes civil society representatives from across four neighbourhoods, including Maitland Garden Village, Kensington, Factreton, and Maitland.
Impact
In 2019, the first Transitional Housing facility was built in Salt River for the families being relocated from the Pine Road site, which is currently earmarking for 240 social housing units.
Most Significant Change Story
Maitland Garden Village Housing Forum (MGVHF)’s advocacy work on the needs of backyarders leads to decisive action from the City
In 2019, the MGVHF was established with the sole mandate of representing the housing needs of backyarders in the community. In 2019, the Forum was successfully launched with a constitution which was developed in a workshop hosted by DAG. As a result, Committee members were elected by the community as part of the launch and one of the first activities the forum conducted was a ‘housing demonstration’ on the main roads, to communicate the housing needs of residents to the City. The demonstration was successful, the forum experienced great success in its first few months of operation and it managed to mandate the City of Cape Town to conduct a backyarder enumeration for the community. The enumeration was welcomed by the community and renewed confidence in residents that there is hope for receiving a house in the future.
Publications
project Partners
