The city of Cape Town has attempted to intervene in areas of city-owned properties to approve backyard accommodations. Backyard units in municipal housing areas account for 38% of the 109,000 documented backyard structures in the city. The city provided legal mechanisms to in-clude backyards in the minimum standards for service provision in accordance to national policy norms and standards drawing on funding from the Urban Settlement Development Grant focusing on infrastructural investment and legal protection for backyarders. .

Many local NGOs like the Development Action Group focus on capacity building through a “right to the city” framework committed to offerring technical advice to local CBOs. DAG has engaged in research of the Kensington/Fractreton backyarders and facilitates horizontal learning programs for the Cape Metropole Backyarders Association.

Rather than comply with organized horizontal learning programs facilitated by NGOs, the CBOs take advantage of the meeting space to create their own agendas and voice concerns to each other to foster networking potential and mutual learning.

1. social + physical infrastructure --> successful housing delivery 2. addressing benefits of informality as opposed to formalization as best practice3. realize networking potential among geographically disparate communities - power of sharing stories / self-organizing strategies4. self-build and in-situ upgrading tendencies among communities (natural process)

INFORMALITY - a f ramework fo r deve lopmentAs evidenced by the burgeoning informal housing sector in many developing countries, govern-ments, planners, and general stakeholders’ traditional housing policies have failed to tend to the needs of the communities affected. Given the projected rapid increase in the proportion of the global population dwelling informally, the issue must be taken seriously and integrated into future planning practices.

CASE STUDY - backyarder informal rentalship The Backyarder housing model provide a narrative of how individuals create different types of housing models as a response to misdirected governmental action and its lack of strategic focus. The Backyarders blur the lines between informal structures are incorporated in the housing

C A S E S T U D Y - B a c k y a r d e r i n f o r m a l r e n t a l s h i p

NOT IN MY BACKYARD: HOUSING INSECURITY AND INFORMAL REPONSES IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICACASE STUDY: Community-level responses to exclusion from housing provision in Kensington, a low-income suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. MIRA KAPLAN.UURC.4/26/17.

typology. Exploring the social spaces generated through this community-level approach will paint the picture of an overlooked but significant proportion of a burgeoning housing submarket in Cape Town through the lens of the Backyarders.

M E T H O D S

The primary method of data collection was in-person interviewing. The interviews were conduct-ed conversationally but were framed in terms of understanding how the interviewee came to live in his/her current housing situation and to understand personal hardships/benefits/aspirations regarding their housing. Prepared departure questions are listed below. These are general ques-tions aimed at backyarders, but questions were tailored to individual situations and followed ac-counts. The researched conducted site visits with a community host Adiel. Sample questions:

4/24/2017 Untitled map

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1HwjLnduh_gzb_lEQFxw5Yh78Oyk&ll=-34.09546008218217%2C18.554159580468763&z=10 1/1

MAP LEGEND

Map data ©2017 AfriGIS (Pty) Ltd, Google Terms 5 mi

4/24/2017 Untitled map

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1HwjLnduh_gzb_lEQFxw5Yh78Oyk&ll=-33.90942281260877%2C18.51186962491454&z=15 1/1

MAP LEGEND

Map data ©2017 AfriGIS (Pty) Ltd, Google Imagery ©2017 , CNES / Astrium, Cnes/Spot Image, DigitalGlobe Terms 1,000 ft

I N F O R M A L I T Y - a f r a m e w o r k f o r d e v e l o p m e n t

G O V E R N A N C E - m u n i c i p a l / i n s i t u t i o n a l / l o c a lcity intervention : case study

NGOs : development action group

community-based organizations

C L A I M S

sample profile

S I T E S - s p a t i a l f r a g m e n t a t i o n C O M M U N I T Y - L E V E L R E S P O N S E

KENSINGTON

43k

m

SPATIAL FRAGMENTAITON BE-TWEEN SITES

DISTANCE AS BARRIER TO SOCIAL MOBILIZATION

DECENTRALIZED INFORMALITY