Informal settlements are a common reality in Cape Town and South Africa’s urban landscape. Dire living conditions are the backdrop to the lack of services like proper sanitation and refuse removal, clean water, public health initiatives, adequate safety and access to economic opportunity. Shack fires regularly rip through these informal settlements, taking lives, ravaging homes and destroying earthly possessions. During the rainy season families are flooded out of their homes into temporary housing, in conditions exacerbated by Cape Town’s icy winters. These familiar experiences have become a regular feature in a country that has collectively failed to address the issue of dignified housing for all.

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