SPACES WITHOUT FACES: HOUSING, MENTAL HEALTH, AND HUMAN DIGNITY

The Cape Times’ Big Friday Read is a series of feature articles focusing on the forgotten issues that often disappear in the blur of fast news cycles. This week, Durban-based Lawyer, political activist, and advocate for social justice Previn Vedan continues to reflect on South Africa's housing crisis, which he traces back to colonialism and apartheid. This is part 6 of a 10-part series.

- PREVIN Vedan.

amplifier. In old township two-room government flats, like those in Shallcross, Durban, it is not uncommon to find three generations of eight or ten people crammed together - because the housing backlog forces extended families to consolidate. Privacy is nonexistent - a quarrel between spouses in one flat can become the whole flat blocks entertainment, and a baby's midnight cries ensure everyone else is awake too.

This constant lack of privacy or respite can breed conflict and despair. People cannot easily find peace in such environments, and minor disputescan quickly escalate.

Indeed, many social ills - from domestic violence to substance abuse - have environmental stressors as contributing factors. The architecture of apartheid created pressure-cooker communities and we are still living with the results.

In some notorious instances in townships (as seen in Phoenix, Durban) parks or sports grounds have been sacrificed to make way for more housing.

While the need for homes is acute, the loss of communal space further chips away at quality of life.

I visited a government subsidised flat complex in central Durban - a refurbishedbuilding meant to provide decent affordable rentals. It was safe and clean, yet many residents complained of loneliness and anxiety.

One woman, a single mother, pointed out that unlike in the government flat that she had lived in, here nobody knew their neighbor. Doors stayed shut, people feared each other or had nothing to do with each other.

This was an interesting contrast - in a dense area such as a government flat or informal settlement, people might have too little personal space yet a strong sense of community interdependence, whereas in a formal but impersonal housing block, peoplehad walls between them and their neighbors, sometimes leading to isolation.

Housing is about community, not just units.