The socio-economic impacts of displacement : gentrification in the Point precinct, Durban

Abstract

In South Africa, gentrification has a huge impact on the makeup of city spaces where it has been used as a redevelopment tool in order to restore and enhance these spaces. However, socio-economic turmoil is created when development benefits mainly the elite minority whilst marginalising the poor majority, which occurs in many instances of gentrification. In the worst cases, gentrification creates a trickle-up affect whereby the benefits of such a process are felt predominantly by the urban elite. This is evident in this study, where gentrification at the Point Precinct in Durban led to the marginalisation of residents of the Ark, a Christian-run homeless shelter that was forced to shut down as its residents no longer fitted in with the image-conscious ideals of the redeveloping area. These residents were displaced and ultimately relocated to a severely under-developed area known as Welbedacht approximately 30km away. This study aimed to explore the negative socio-economic impacts of displacement as a result of this gentrification and found that these impacts are vast, severe and long-lasting, including the social implications of isolation and exclusion coupled with the economic loss of living along the periphery. The implications of displacement are severe primarily due to the following reasons: the community’s displacement from the core to the urban periphery, the lack of social justice in the area, and the high levels of social exclusion. Furthermore, the implications of the gentrification process itself has resulted in a cycle of impoverishment in which Welbedacht has become entrenched. Due to the neo-liberal policies favoured by developers and policy makers, the urban poor are pushed out of the core and into the periphery with little support from local government, thereby resulting in the further marginalisation of a vulnerable community. Developers and policy makers should therefore strive for development that is equitable for all parties. Furthermore, facilities such as homeless shelters which provide countless services to the urban poor should not be shut down, but rather local government should strive to either redevelop such facilities or relocate them to an area that offers the same characteristics for the continued successful socio-economic development of the urban poor.