Housing Crisis in Cape Town From Fort to Flat: The Cape Colony Reimagined in a Time of Housing Hardship
Cape Town is celebrated worldwide, yet the city’s housing crisis tells another story—one written through colonial land control, apartheid planning, and present-day market pressures. From Fort to Flat maps how fortified power became an urban blueprint that still shapes who gets to live near opportunity and who is pushed to the margins. The piece looks beyond housing numbers to the politics of location, the pressure of short-term rentals and investment trends, and the work of civil society movements fighting for spatial justice. It closes by naming philanthropy’s catalytic role: backing evidence, resourcing community voice, convening cross-sector pilots, and sustaining policy reform.