Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says the heritage approval is a crucial milestone toward the design and submission of building plans for the site. ‘This is our single biggest social-housing proposal in the inner city, and it’s important that it proceeds, and now with heritage approval, we can proceed to planning and building-plan submission.’
According to James Vos, acting mayoral committee member for human settlements, both the Woodstock Hospital and the provincially-owned Helen Bowden Nurses Home properties were subject to building hijacking by Ndifuna Ukwazi’s Reclaim the City campaign in early 2017 after the government announced plans to develop social housing in the area.
The old Woodstock Hospital has been renamed the Cissie Gool House by Reclaim the City members, who occupied it in 2017.