Housing Protest Held As 50,000 Homeless In Belfast
This action was called to highlight the hypocrisies of the city welcoming 800,000 visitors to the Fleadh whilst the 200 people displaced directly by the racist pogroms in June have still been given little or no support and a further 50,000 households remain on the housing waiting list.
Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), Anaka Women’s Collective, Take Back the City and Dar held a protest against the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) on Thursday 6th August.
This action was called to highlight the hypocrisies of the city welcoming 800,000 visitors to the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann whilst the 200 people displaced directly by the racist pogroms in June have still been given little or no support and a further 50,000 households remain on the housing waiting list. Rough sleepers were also moved out of the city in response to the festival, as reported by the Irish Times.
This represents a contradiction between the State’s response to tourism versus the response to the housing crisis, community groups say.
“The Fleadh has transformed our city in the most wonderful ways; the streets are pedestrianised, there are accessible public toilets and dual-lingual signage has appeared overnight. Most starkly is the solution to housing that has been made for our 800,000 visitors. Rules have been bent in the name of tourism that are deemed completely impossible for residents of the city. Most pertinently, the families we have been supporting since June have been ignored by statutory bodies, whilst the carpet has been rolled out for all our visitors this week, “ said Hannah Gibson speaking on behalf of CATU.
This sentiment was echoed by Conal Matthews, an activist with Take Back The City, who highlighted that “the contradictions of a government willing to move mountains, change planning laws and commandeer public space to provide temporary accommodation for tourists (estimated 800,000), yet not for the 50,000 families on the housing waiting list or for the families burned out of their homes 2 months ago.”
CATU and Anaka Women’s Collective have also co-ordinated an action where members and activists will hand-deliver over 200 housing complaints regarding the lack of support given to families since the week of racist intimidation in June to NIHE.
Whilst the official records have stated only a handful of households were affected due to racist riots in June, over 500 households have been supported by community volunteers from Anaka, CATU, PPR and other groups for the past 2 months.
“In the days and weeks that followed the racist pogroms, it was the people of Belfast who showed up when the government and its institutions stood back – ordinary people who volunteered their own homes to host victims, brought families their shopping and took children to their GCSE exams. It was our local artists who entertained children at our community-led crisis centre and allowed us to use their studios to store belongings of people forced to flee their homes. It was our local musicians who organised fundraising concerts and worked for free to ensure we could raise enough funds to book emergency accommodation for those who needed it “, said Elfie Seymour, an organiser with Anaka, praising the community for intervening where the State failed to do so.
