ABSTRACT
The chapter provides case study material to illustrate some of the lack of fit that results. It illustrates a persistent lack of fit between urban housing policy and on-the-ground housing need amongst African residents of greater Cape Town. The chapter provides an indication of the diversity of a specific population. It examines how current housing policy in South Africa addresses the particular domestic circumstances and consolidation strategies of some African households in the metropolitan area of Cape Town. South Africa’s housing policy, strongly influenced by ‘supply side’ considerations, appears to be based on certain unexamined, and possibly over-simplistic, assumptions about the needs and priorities of potential beneficiaries. South African housing policy was subject to wide-ranging debate and review in the period immediately before, and after, the election of the country’s first democratic government in mid-1994. The shift towards a new approach to housing provision cannot be divorced from broader political and social developments.
