Poor Squeezed Out By Cape Town Housing Shortage

Cape Town, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Sep, 2024) Ursula Felkers moved to 'Tin Can Town' in 2007 after being evicted from an apartment near the centre of Cape Town when a new landlord took over.

She thought she would only be in Blikkiesdorp -- where row upon row of shacks stand on a desolate plot next to Cape Town's international airport -- for a few months.

Intended for "housing emergencies", the site 25 kilometers (15 miles) from central Cape Town made headlines in 2010 when the municipality was accused of moving thousands of homeless people there ahead of the World Cup.

"The city originally said this was only for three to six months," said Felkers, 43, at her two-roomed shack made from rusting metal sheets. But a new housing project fell through and "16 years later, we are still waiting", she told.

"In summer, you suffocate inside. In winter, it's like an icebox," she said. There is not much here: no shops, no services, nowhere to work.