From Informal Settlements to Formality: A Resettlement Group's Adaptation to a Newly Planned Community in Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Abstract

This article discusses the dilemmas that individuals faced after relocating from periurban informal settlements to a new housing development community. In 1999, the Coega Development Corporation collaborated with city officials in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to create a housing community called Wells Estate for people who were living in informal settlements, displaced by the construction of a new economic development project. Several years after their forced resettlement, Wells Estate residents still faced many challenges adjusting to their new location. Some residents stated that the sense of community, openness, and social trust that they had experienced in their previous residence was lost when they moved to their new homes. Also, some residents mentioned how reciprocity and the sharing of resources, which were common practices in their informal settlements, had been dramatically altered in the new community. By using the community of Wells Estate and its creation as a case study, this article explores how the forced displacement and relocation of individuals may affect social cohesion, trust, and community involvement among people relocated from informal settlements. This research aims to address whether a transition from informality to formal housing can have detrimental consequences on community sentiment and social cohesion.Keywords Community; Economic development; Forced removals; South Africa; Squatters Relocations, resettlements, and forced removals have a long history in South Africa, both before and during the apartheid era. At the height of this system of racial segregation enforced through National Party legislation and white minority rule between 1960 and 1983, more than 3.5 million black Africans were relocated to areas across the country especially designated for them. These new settlements tended to be situated either in one of South Africa's desolate ethnic homelands or in black townships on the outskirts of major cities (Platzky & Walker, 1985:9).Since the fall of apartheid and the creation of a democratic country, people are no longer forcibly relocated because of their ethnicity. Instead, individuals are now able to live in any area of the country without fear of arrest, including areas in major cities or in the numerous settlements that border these cities. Despite this new freedom of movement, large numbers of disadvantaged groups are still impacted by the government's plan to improve the economy through large-scale economic development initiatives. These initiatives tend to go head-to-head with individuals' residential and living choices, which subsequently impact their kin and the social relationships they have established in their communities. Although these economic plans are touted by the government as a means to assist the poor and to boost overall economic development and well-being for the country and its people, they often lead to 224

Insatisfacción residencial post-relocalización de asentamientos informales en viviendas sociales: una revisión sistemática de la literatura

“…Disminución de las relaciones sociales. En una gran cantidad de casos -alrededor del 30% de los estudiados-, las buenas relaciones sociales que existían en los hábitats de origen se deterioran luego del reasentamiento (Bodur y Dülgeroğlu, 2017;Brain et al, 2010;DeMoss-Norman, 2015;Erman, 2019;Hernández y Saccucci, 2020;Megento, 2013;Mejía-Escalante, 2012;Qiu et al, 2020;Sarrafi y Moahmmadi, 2018;Tammarazio, 2016). En Chile se ha encontrado que la añoranza por los modos de sociabilidad de los asentamientos informales está dentro de las principales razones para el deseo de abandono de la vivienda social o para el efectivo retorno a éstos (Besoain y Cornejo, 2015;Brain et al, 2010;Morales et al, 2017).…”

“…Se ha encontrado que la inseguridad es una importante causa de insatisfacción especialmente para las mujeres, dada la pérdida de espacios seguros bajo la vigilancia comunitaria (DeMoss-Norman, 2015; Sarrafi y Moahmmadi, 2018). En los asentamientos informales existe un mayor control territorial, dado que los hogares se conocen entre sí, a diferencia de los conjuntos de vivienda social donde regularmente confluyen familias de orígenes diversos (Brain et al, 2010;Coelho et al, 2020;DeMoss-Norman, 2015;Mejía-Escalante, 2012;Meth, 2020;Meth y Buthelezi, 2017;Núñez, A., 2016;Salcedo, 2010).…”

“…La situación señalada es aparentemente contradictoria con el hecho de que en los nuevos hábitats regularmente hay mejores condiciones básicas de habitabilidad, tales como una mayor seguridad de los terrenos frente a amenazas naturales (Chardon, 2010;Herran, 2017;Koster y Nuijten, 2012;Pathak y Das, 2019;Sarrafi y Moahmmadi, 2018) y mejor estabilidad, durabilidad y salubridad de las viviendas, pues de casas de material ligero y permeable se pasa a otras construidas de acuerdo con los requerimientos normativos (Bodur y Dülgeroğlu, 2017;Godoy, 2019;Herath et al, 2017;Vaid y Evans, 2017;Ye et al, 2017). También hay mayor seguridad jurídica de la tenencia de la vivienda por el acceso a su propiedad legal (Carrasco et al, 2017;DeMoss-Norman, 2015;Najman, 2017;Tammarazio, 2016), lo que puede tener un impacto positivo en la autoestima de los beneficiarios (Herath et al, 2017;Samaratunga y O'Hare, 2014) y en la reducción de la violencia doméstica, pues ayuda a disminuir las tensiones entre los miembros del hogar . Además, la conexión formal a los servicios de alcantarillado y agua permite una menor incidencia de enfermedades transmisibles y la tenencia de instalaciones sanitarias al interior de la vivienda, lo que reduce la vulnerabilidad, especialmente de las mujeres, frente al crimen y la violencia sexual (Cronin y Guthrie, 2011;Meth y Buthelezi, 2017;Samaratunga y O'Hare, 2014).…”

Environmental Sustainability Opportunities at Informal Settlements in Unesco World Heritage Areas: A Case Study of Hue, Vietnam

“…In a study investigating the effects of the forced relocation of the Wells Estate community in South Africa, residents felt that they had more control over their lives at their previous location. Post-relocation; schools and employment were further away and many residents became unemployed [23]. In two examples of World Heritage designations in China (Yinhuwan Village at Mount Sanqingshan and the Ancient City of Ping Yao in Shanxi Province) heritage tourism became the major focus of the government and local communities were moved off their lands.…”

Forgotten Plotlanders: Learning from the Survival of Lost Informal Housing in the UK

“…This shift in agenda and agency was crucial in producing the ideological formalisation and legislative manipulation of housing and planning theory and policy. Thus, the eradication of informal housing in the UK has come to reflect a spatial condition that is forcefully advocated from apex capitalist States as one of many ways to prescribe that rest of the world must 'catch up to the West' (Massey 2005, 4;Sachs 2010;DeMoss-Norman 2015).…”