- The Peoples Housing Process: a case of the Amathole District Municipality   600 kb by    Campbell, Maria & Mshumpela, Andile | campbemm.sci@ufs.ac.za    Short Outline The Peoples Housing Process in the Amathole District Municipality failed due to incorrect implementation. Areas where beneficiaries can be close to economic opportunities should be identified adhering to the Spatial Development Framework. Abstract Urban planning emerged in response to the industrial slums of the nineteenth century (Hall 2002). The reaction was two-fold: Marxism advocated a radical revolutionary overthrow of capitalist political systems and the ‘utopian’ alternative accepted the urban-industrial system, believing that state intervention would ameliorate its worst excesses (Pacione 2004). These are alternatives to the current view in the Western World that “land is a commodity, which is bought and sold in the market” (Blumenfeld 1979: 169), thus a free market approach. However this system does not cater for the urban poor. Through urban renewal and urban redevelopment programmes, low-income housing in the central city is replaced by housing for higher-income groups. The question that arises is where the poor should go? Thomas (1997:16) also agrees that capitalism has caused an uneven development within cities where profiteering is the primary driving force in the production and maintenance of the built environment. This research determined whether the People’s Housing Process (PHP) in the Amathole District Municipality (ADM) is a viable option for producing quality low-cost housing developments. It was also researched whether the spatial location of these housing projects is in line with the Spatial Development Framework of both local and district municipalities. The PHP in the ADM has failed due to the incorrect implementation of the concept. The identification of well-located areas for PHP projects will assist in building housing close to economic opportunities as most of the ADM projects implemented are far from towns and cities. Therefore the ADM’s strategy should change and focus on demarcating areas where beneficiaries can be close to job and transport opportunities. This will be addressed by adherence to the Spatial Development Framework and also the principles of Development Facilitation Act. These poorly located projects implemented by ADM follows the legacy of apartheid by encouraging people to stay more than 20 km away from areas of opportunity. The conduct of the research primarily relied on a quantitative methodology comprising of structured questionnaires. Qualitative interviews were also done to gain perspectives and insight from professional urban and regional planners. Keywords Low cost housing Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2008: Urban Growth without Sprawl   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper