CoCT out of touch with housing crisis faced by the poor, says Ndifuna Ukwazi
Housing advocacy group, Ndifuna Ukwazi, is taking the city to court on behalf of a Woodstock family who’s facing eviction from the home they've been living in for more than two decades.
CAPE TOWN - Housing advocacy group, Ndifuna Ukwazi, said that the City of Cape Town was out of touch with the housing crisis faced by the poor.
It's taking the city to court on behalf of a Woodstock family who’s facing eviction from the home they've been living in for more than two decades.
READ MORE: 6 families in court battle to stave off evictions from Woodstock homes
The building in question was sold to a developer in 2018 and has been in this quandary since then.
Ndifuna Ukwazi said that the city had an obligation to provide the family with alternative accommodation.
However, the city’s only offering an emergency housing kit.
It said that the family has rejected an offer from the new building owners of R100,000 or six months alternative accommodation.
But Ndifuna Ukwazi attorney, Jonty Cogger, said that the city had a responsibility to intervene in the matter.
"We find the notion that evictees should fend for themselves in an emergency by finding alternative private accommodation the very antithesis of the state’s housing obligations. The essence of the state’s role in eviction crises is to step in and prevent homelessness. The fact that the city has shifted the onus back onto evictees truly shows that it is out of touch with the housing crisis and the impact of gentrification on the working poor."
