Accommodation and Tenuous Livelihoods in Johannesburg’s Inner City: the ‘Rooms’ and ‘Spaces’ Typologies

Abstract

! 'Rooms' and 'spaces' are two closely linked forms of accommodation where the unit of occupation and exchange is a portion of a larger building or property, within which services and facilities are shared. 'Rooms' and 'spaces' in the inner city represented two of very few typologies research participants were aware of that allowed them access to the livelihood opportunities Johannesburg had to offer. Through participant observation and qualitative interviews this study explores two buildings featuring informal rooms and spaces and one building featuring formal rooms and spaces in Johannesburg's inner city. While formal rooms represented the most stable support to those specific occupants, there were several 'barriers to entry' including the prerequisite of a stable income. There was much to be learnt from the flexibility and diversity of rooms and spaces on the informal market, which enabled occupants to cope with insecure livelihood opportunities. The research demonstrated the incredible resilience of occupants in the face of an extreme shortage of affordable accommodation in Johannesburg's inner city (Tissington, 2013). However, the findings suggested an adverse relationship between accommodation and livelihoods demonstrated by the three 'forms' of rooms and spaces, where the only form available to people with the least secure livelihoods is that which, in turn, subjects them to the greatest insecurity.

Property in a time of transition: An examination of perceptions, navigations and constructions of property relations among unlawful occupiers in Johannesburg’s inner city

“…In line with other studies of inner city Johannesburg (Mayson and Charlton, 2015;Poulsen, 2010;Wilhelm-Solomon and Pedersen, 2017), our research reveals quite a high level of precariousness among inner city unlawful occupiers. Most evidently, our respondents are all relatively economically unstable, relying on informal work (including street trading, casual child-minding, spaza shop operation, 13 taxi-washing and sex work), and earning irregular and low wages 14 and/or relying on social grants 15 to get by.…”

“…Among our interviewees, monthly fundswhether from informal work or employment -range from R800 (US$60. Mayson and Charlton, 2015;Poulsen, 2010). In some buildings, migrants come from other African countries (see Wilhelm-Solomon and Pedersen, 2017), but in our study the residents we spoke to were all internal migrants from South African rural areas.…”

Urban land reform in South Africa: Pointers for urban policy and planning

“…A foothold for the poor in well-located areas can be facilitated through regulations that enable formal rights to the use of small spaces, even if the m 2 price remains unmoderated. Extra-legal examples of this are evident in inner-city Johannesburg (CoJ), where apartment space is subdivided into affordable micro-portions, for instance an enclosed balcony or a portion of a sitting-room (Mayson & Charlton, 2015). In addition, the creation of dignified spatial commons, for instance public spaces, and rights to use these, be this for productive purposes or even for sleeping, are also critical in providing access to well-located areas (Davy, 2009).…”

Politics and Community-Based Research

“…Much of this accommodation is in existing building stock where generously proportioned original spaces have been appropriated and redesignated. In some cases private spaces such as bedrooms or even bathrooms have become collective spaces whilst collective spaces (living rooms, corridors, and staircases) have been appropriated for private use (ARPL 3013 2010;Mayson 2014).…”