Employment Profile
2.4 Climate Change
2.7.5 Spatial Strategy
The item of spatial alignment and integration of SDF cascading into the BEPP and Sector Plans enjoys ongoing corporate attention.
4 ETA Estimate
LOW RESIDENTIAL DENSITIES
SDF
INTEGRATION ZONES
Figure 48: Low Residential Densities
Figure 49: SDF and Integration Zones
Mpumalanga
Amanzimtoti Umbumbulu
CBD
Isipingo Umlazi
Chatsworth
Umnini
Umkomaas Inchanga
Hillcrest Kloof Pinetown
Bridge City Verulam
Tongaat
Umhlanga Mzinyathi
138 2.7.6 Integration Zones
The Integration Zones are a concept to spatially deal with objectives of city-building, especially inclusiveness, efficiency, and connectivity.
The eThekwini Integration Zones set out comprehensive spatial targets for all of the metropolitan extents.
The departure point is that integration should not be limited to only selected spaces making up the core of the urban fabric, but that integration can and must occur within the whole city – within urban areas, suburbs and non-urban areas. These have been mapped as three distinct Integration Zones.
Each Integration Zone has an appropriate integration intervention and investment programme, that seeks to strike an appropriate balance between stimulating growth, meeting social pressures, and meeting constitutional and legal obligations.
Urban Zone
The Urban Zone is a two to four km wide belt around the metropolitan, provincial, and national movement system. It includes all of the significant urban centres, economic zones with high concentrations of infrastructure, jobs, and economic activities, and the adjoining residential areas. In addition to existing high-intensity uses, The Urban Zone contains numerous opportunities for intense brownfields or greenfields urban development, including almost all of the Catalytic Projects. This Zone also contains 90% of jobs (i.e.
almost all), and 48% of the residences (i.e. roughly half). It occupies about a quarter of the municipal extents.
The broad development strategy is to:
Maximise residential densities, and promote higher levels of LED to support the new densities
Fully upgrade informal settlements
Find opportunities to expand, intensify or redevelop properties for high density residential, and for economic uses
Install core infrastructure and establish institutional
Suburban Zone
The Suburban IZ is a one to two km wide low-density residential belt beyond the Urban Zone. It is home to 1.6 million people (about 43% of the population), on a third of the municipal extents. Commuting to work and higher order social facilities is the norm. There tends to be a reasonable level of local engineering services. This IZ comprises are townships and informal settlements which came about through apartheid planning which rely on public transport, and which tend to suffer from backlogs or inefficiencies in local social facilities. This IZ also comprises former Indian and white suburbs that rely on private transport.
The broad development strategy is to:
Improve the connectivity of the suburbs to the Urban Zone.
Improve the quality and effectiveness of existing social facilities serving residential areas and in some cases to build new ones.
Promote higher residential densities through typologies that are appropriate for residential suburbs
Quickly provide informal settlements with universal access to basic services in
Non-Urban Zone
The Non-Urban Zone comprises low-density traditional areas, as well as densifying traditional areas, commercial farming and other open space and which in the past used to be isolated from the other parts of the city. Typically there are very basic services only, and poor or expensive connectivity to the city is typical. The Non-Urban IZ supports traditional lifestyles, agriculture and nature conservation, and is home to 8% of the population (one in every twelve persons), and about 43% (or nearly half) of the municipal extents.
The broad development strategy is to:
Improve connectivity (roads and internet)
Improve local social facilities and access to basic engineering services
Provide higher order social facilities and economic opportunities in selected nodes
Encourage sustainable livelihoods and access to agri- processing and distribution.
139 arrangements and funding
models to drive the City’s own Catalytic Projects and to enable the Catalytic Projects led by others
Commission the first phase of the IRPTN and improve regional routes
parallel to the slower full upgrading program.
Promote LED
140 Figure 40: Urban and Rural Human Settlements Projects
141 2.7.7 Housing Mega-Projects
Programme features
Housing Mega-Projects:
Are a type of Catalytic Project
Create complete human settlements
Cater for people in various income bands
Aim at increased densities
Are very well connected to public transport
Are large, each over 5,000 housing opportunities
Require major infrastructure investment
Require a mix of public funds
Aim to also leverage private investments including household investments
Require highly developed and multiple skills to conceptualise
Have multiple stakeholders [5]
eThekwini has about two dozen Catalytic Projects. The Human Settlements Unit have identified significant residential opportunities and have subsequently championed the following:
Greater Cornubia (comprising Cornubia Phases 1 and 2 and Cornubia North)
Inyaninga
Greater KwaMashu-Bridge City Urban Hub
Inner City
Greater Amaoti Informal Settlement Cluster
Greater Mpumalanga
Umlazi Urban Regeneration
Avoca North
Locational Criteria
Housing Mega-Projects are strategically located in integration zones. All of them are in the Urban Zone, except for Amaoti, which is in the Suburban Zone, and which therefore will be slightly less intensively developed than the others.
5 Guidance Note for the Built Environment Performance Plan 2015/16 – 2017/18. National Treasury, Oct 2014
142 Programme Scale
The programme intends to deliver from 170,000 to 270,000 housing opportunities. It is also intended to deliver numerous (though yet to be quantified) permanent jobs for maintenance of core infrastructure, operations of social facilities, staffing in local businesses.
Programme Origin And Duration
Cornubia pre-dates the programme start, and serves as a process template for the other Mega- Projects. The programme began to be conceptualised about two years ago, and elements of it appeared in the BEPP 2014-15. It was expressed as a deliberate programme in the form of a submission to National Department of Human Settlements (NDHS). The programme is likely to run for about two decades.
Budget Requirements And Funding Sources
The Mega-Projects programme needs about R 120 Bn in capital investments at current prices. R2.9 Bn appears in the Capital Budget for the current MTEF Potential funding sources include:
Urban Settlement Development Grant
Housing Settlement Development Grant
Municipal Housing Capacity Support Grant
Council Funds
Other spheres for some of the social infrastructure, particularly schools and clinics
Other spheres for some of the core infrastructure, particularly provincial or national routes, bridges and interchanges
Private Investments, particularly for the development of commercial sites, and for developer contributions to core infrastructure.
Capacity or Systemic Requirements
A full-time multi-disciplinary project team of four to six people plus a pool of internal or external consultants would be the optimum arrangement needed for every Mega-Project. This level of resourcing is not currently in place, and attention will be given by the Human Settlements Unit and the Municipality during the current MTEF to resource the Mega-Projects adequately. In the meantime, the Human Settlements Unit has tentatively received medium-term funding support for staff and consultants.
143 Figure 51: Mega Catalytic Project Map
144 2.7.8 Incremental Services
Programme Features
The Programme aims to promote social equity and social inclusion by providing every household in Informal Settlements with access to basic engineering services, basic social facilities, and local economic opportunities, as soon as possible. The project selection criterion is Informal Settlements that are earmarked for upgrade in the longer term. There are five sub-programmes, namely:
Community Ablution Blocks
Community Access - Access Roads, Pedestrian Paths, Emergency Infrastructure
Electricity - Ablution Blocks, Streetlights, Individual Connections
Access to social facilities, particularly fire and police stations, clinics, schools, and sports-fields.
Sustainable livelihoods.
Locational Criteria
Most of the planned projects are in the Suburban Zone
Programme Scale
The current phase of the programme will benefit 70,000 households in approximately twenty clusters of informal settlements.
Programme Origin and Duration
This programme has its beginnings in the provision of water stand-pipes to informal settlements in the early 1990’s. This was superceded by the provision of communal ablution blocks and refuse collection programmes in the mid and late 1990’s. It was first expressed as a deliberate programme in the previous edition of the eHSP. The programme is intended to be complete in two MTEFs, if funds permit.
Budget Requirements and Funding Sources
Assuming a current-price benchmark of R 25,000 investment for each household, then the programme will require approximately R1.75 Bn. R270 Mill appears in the Capital Budget for the current MTEF At this rate it will take six MTEFs (eighteen years) to deliver the current phase of the programme, which is contrary to its intention to complete the programme in two MTEFs, and a resolution of this contradiction will be have to be sought. Current funding sources include:
Urban Settlement Development Grant
Other spheres for some of the social infrastructure, particularly schools and clinics
COMMUNAL ABLUTIONS
145 The Communal Ablution Blocks sub-Programme is reasonably well-resourced. About R1.Bn has been invested over the past three years. The other sub-Programmes all require to be significantly up- scaled to meet targets.
Capacity or Systemic Requirements
Each of the sub-programmes are separately managed and staffed.
Table 9: Sub-programmes, responsibility and Authority
Department Responsibility & Authority
Collective Project Selection & Prioritisation, Funding, Monitoring Water Services Community Ablution Blocks
Development Engineering Community Access
Durban Electricity Communal and Individual Electricity Social Cluster Social Facilities
Economic Development Sustainable Livelihoods
The Collective needs to be put in place, and project preparation and implementation capacities need to be up-scaled for several of the sub-Programmes.
146 Figure 52: Incremental Services to Informal Settlements Map 2016/2017
147 2.7.9 Institutional and Social Housing
Programme Features
Institutional Housing aims to support vulnerable and special needs groups. It subsidises the capital costs of creating rental stock for income groups earning under R3,500 per month. The programme is typically implemented by Non-Profit Organisations (NPO’s).
Social Housing aims to develop rental stock for income groups up to R7,500 p.m.Social Housing may result in refurbishments or new-builds. The programme is implemented exclusively by Social Housing Institutions (SHIs). Questions have been raised whether the income targets are sustainable under the available subsidy scheme quantum and given the operating costs required to meet the set standards.
The Social Housing Programme needs to be viewed alongside a Private Rental sub-market, which targets a similar income band, and does so without subsidy, and without the building and operating standards.
Locational Criteria
Institutional Housing may be applied anywhere. Social Housing Programme must be in Restructuring Zones, which are identified by municipalities and approved by the NDHS and Province. eThekwini intends to assign the Urban Zone as a Restructuring Zone. A discussion has been initiated with NDHS, and resolution on this issue is intended during the 2016-17 year.
Programme Scale
These programmes have been small scale. The 2015-16 national review of the housing policies and subsidies however recognises that Social Housing plays an important city-building role, and is intended to be significantly up-scaled. Available statistics and plans suggest, there is scope for a programme of 100,000 units in either the Social or Private Rental sub-markets in the Durban CBD alone. Added to that the intention that Catalytic Projects should aim at a quarter to a third of residential units to be rentals, then there is scope for another 60,000 rental units.
Programme Origin and Duration
Housing for Special Needs and Vulnerable Groups has been traditionally supplied by faith-based and secular NPO’s for over a century. Social Housing is however a relatively modern variation on public rental housing stock. The programme is a long-term one.
Budget Requirements and Funding Sources
Assuming a first phase of 10,000 units, then the capital requirements excluding land acquisition will be in the order of R3 Bn. Current capital funding sources include
Social Housing Restructuring Grants
Institutional Housing Subsidies
Private Equity
Development Finance
148 Capacity or Systemic Requirements
The Municipality’s role is to facilitate investments by SHI’s and NPO’s. Social Housing is intended as a component for most of the Catalytic Projects. The capacity that is required to be developed by the Municipality is improved market intelligence on the sub-market size and profile, and on customer and supplier interest in the targeted locations. Where Council avails its own properties for Social Housing at a discount (as has been the case in the past) or via a lease agreement, or where it wishes to acquire land for social housing, then the capability to compile technical plans and strategic business plans needs to be developed. Given the small scale of the programme delivery to date, there will be a need for the number and supply capacity of SHI’s to be developed.
Figure 53: Social, Gap and Special Housing
149 2.7.10 Affordable Housing
Programme Features
To assist households in the affordable housing market the National Government avails financial assistance to individual households with monthly incomes of R3,500 to R15,000, and who are often excluded from the bond market. The government assistance takes the form of assistance to down payment for mortgage via the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP) and Mortgage Insurance. “This Programme [FLISP] provides access to state assistance where qualifying households wish to acquire an existing house or a vacant serviced residential stand, linked to a house construction contract through an approved mortgage loan. These properties are available in the normal secondary housing market or have been developed as part of projects not financed through one of the other National Housing Programmes. The Programme encourages the growth of the secondary residential property market….” [6] Affordable housing is developed privately. The city facilitates:
Sales of well-located land in infill locations to developers at cost, and
Identification of potential customer households in the affordable income bracket
Locational Criteria
This programme will promote projects in the Suburban and Urban Zones. This programme is intended to play a role in establishing socially integrated suburbs. In eThekwini the most prominent project in this regard is Cornubia where a mix of housing types for different income groups is planned.
Programme Origin and Duration
The programme is likely to run over the long term.
Programme Scale
The intended scale for this programme is in the process of being determined.
Budget Requirements and Funding Sources
Once the intended scale of the programme has been determined, the budget requirements will be determined afresh. Funding sources include:
Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme Mortgage Insurance
Land sales at cost (indirect Municipal funding support)
Capacity or Systemic Requirements
The capacity and systemic requirements will be described once a Programme Scale has been determined.
6 The National Housing Code, 2009: Part 1 Simplified Guide to the National Housing Code. Department of Human Settlements. 2009
150 Figure 54: Future Social and Affordable Housing
2.7.11 In Situ Upgrades and Greenfields