The Human Impact of Inequality: Residents Call on Minister to Uphold their Rights
North Belfast residents present human impact of inequality to public bodies. Yesterday (19th September 2013) five north Belfast residents hand delivered letters and evidence to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive of their continuing dire housing circumstances.
Hugh McAuley lives on the 12th floor of Finn House, one of the Seven Towers high rise flats in north Belfast, with his four children. Hugh posted all five residents’ testimonies to the Minister for Social Development, Nelson McCausland MLA this morning (20th September 2013), including photographic and medical evidence of the impact of living in unacceptable housing conditions on each resident and their families.
The residents’ testimonies detail how they, and other families, are being forced to live in cold and damp high rise accommodation, with little or no accessibility or space for children’s play and development.
They detail how families have been forced to go without heat or hot water for over a month with no remedy.
They detail how families have waited for years in ‘temporary’ hostels in cramped conditions and environments with their children.
They detail how each resident’s health and wellbeing is affected in very different ways by the failure of the Department for Social Development and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to recognise and address the chronic problem of Catholic inequality in housing impacting north Belfast.
These activities follow a marathon few weeks for residents as they led both the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, Patricia – Lewsley Mooney and the UN Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing, Raquel Rolnik, on fact finding tours of the Seven Towers and Harbourview Apartments.
The visits and the action followed the publication of the PPR’s ‘Equality Can't Wait’ report, which evidences ten years of failure to build and allocate houses based on need – which was the central purpose for establishing the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in 1971. It also, crucially, documents how these actions breach both the word and the spirit of the 1998 peace agreement with its statutory obligation on public bodies, like the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and Department for Social Development, to promote equality.
Following their visits, both prominent figures expressed serious concern about the affects the housing crisis is having on North Belfast residents and their children.
Following her tour of the Seven Towers and Harbourview the Children’s Commissioner spoke out about the conditions she witnessed:
“While I understand the difficulties in the current economic climate, it is not good enough in the 21st Century for children to have to live in this type of inappropriate accommodation with all the associated risks.”
Whilst the UN Special Rapporteur noted the ongoing failure to tackle problems raised by the UN and the Council for Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights over the last 4 years:
“Other population groups, highlighted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2009, which continue to face inadequate access to affordable housing are Catholics in Northern Ireland, specifically in North Belfast. The current allocation scheme was created to be fair and open, and to allocate accommodation on the basis of meeting the housing need of people. Despite the efforts of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, I remain concerned that full equality has not been achieved yet.”
Following the visits, the Department for Social Development issued a statement stating:
“There is no evidence that Catholics in Northern Ireland face discrimination or inadequate access to affordable housing.”
Hugh McAuley who posted the residents’ testimonies and evidence today expressed hope that the Minister and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive would sit up and take notice at the devastation which the housing crisis is bringing to people’s lives. He said:
“In this day and age I don’t think children should be anywhere near multi storey flats for their safety and their state of mind. If Mr. McCausland thinks there is no evidence why not come out and see the evidence which the Children’s Commissioner and the Special Rapporteur seen firsthand.”