Transforming South Africa’s low-income housing projects through backyard dwellings: intersections with households and the state in Alexandra, Johannesburg

Abstract

South Africa's 'housing programme' transfers a fully-funded serviced site and house to qualifying beneficiaries with aims of progressively addressing poverty through homeownership. Despite delivering close to 3 million houses since 1994, informal housing persists, featuring even in some of these new neighbourhoods. This paper focuses on the intersection between a particular mode of informal housing, backyard dwellings, and state-subsidised low-income housing projects. Backyard dwellings arguably contradict state housing objectives by symbolising informality and disorder; a symptom of inadequacy that the housing programme strives to overcome. We consider first the views and experiences of landlords (owners of state-subsided houses) and tenants (occupiers of privately-provided backyard dwellings) in a section of Alexandra, Johannesburg. We then reflect on the potential of backyard accommodation within postapartheid housing delivery, arguing that despite challenges, the phenomenon of planned, state-led infrastructure generating secondary accommodation represents an opportunity rather than an example of failed modernity. South Africa's backyard dwellings resonate with similar forms of self-funded and managed rental stock across the global South. As a quick, flexible and regenerative housing asset, cumulative acceptance of such rental markets is necessaryalong with viewing the driving actors as astute innovators in shelter and livelihood provision.

Considering Planning Approaches in the Global South and Learning From Co-Production in South Africa’s Informal Backyard Rental Sector

“…Informal backyard rentals are produced as the current government remains unable to meet the extreme housing backlog [54] and the poor are incapable of accessing housing without drawing on some form of support. Within this context, informal backyard rentals bridge shortfalls for both the state and destitute, accordingly meeting the definition on co-production provided earlier [55]. This paper further posits that the informal backyard rental sector provides an example of co-production in service delivery, but also within the North-South debate.…”

More than twenty years after the repeal of the Group Areas Act: housing, spatial planning and urban development in post-apartheid South Africa

“…The map visualizes the geographical position of the ten neighbourhoods discussed in the five articles about Cape Town. For a map locating the four neighbourhoods discussed in the two contributions about Johannesburg, we refer to the papers by Shapurjee and Charlton (2013) and Klug et al (2013).…”

“…While Shortt and Hammett (2013) look at the health differences between shack dwellers and residents of formal housing, Shapurjee and Charlton (2013) focus on the interactions between publicly provided dwellings and the self-built shacks in their backyards. And while Schuermans (2013) is interested in practices of generosity between middle class Whites living in private houses and domestic workers living in poor neighbourhoods or informal settlements, Klug et al (2013) look at the possibility of affordable housing in middle-class projects by private developers.…”

“…A second article on self-help housing has been written by Shapurjee and Charlton (2013). On the one hand, the authors argue that backyard dwellings are often said to symbolize the kind of informality and disorder that the South African government tries hard to overcome.…”

Stanovanjske aspiracije v neformalnem urbanem naselju: študija primera

“…Zato je v številnih mestih na globalnem jugu stanovanjski trg neformalen (Gunter, 2014) in v veliko primerih so procesi preoblikovanja trga iz neformalnega v formalnega prek formalizacije lastninskih pravic povzročili samo še več novih neformalnih oblik (Marais idr., 2014). To potrjuje, da ima neformalni stanovanjski podsektor pomembno vlogo pri zagotavljanju stanovanj v večini mest po svetu (Shapurjee in Charlton, 2013). To pomaga pojasniti, zakaj so raziskave stanovanjskih aspiracij prebivalcev neformalnih naselij postale pomembne za raziskovalce stanovanjskega področja in strokovnjake s področja razvoja mest.…”