UN Special Rapporteur Raises Concerns About Housing Inequality in North Belfast
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on housing, Ms. Raquel Rolnik, publicised her preliminary findings into the state of housing in the UK yesterday (Wednesday 11th September). The remarks follow the UN Special Rapporteur’s visit to social housing developments in North Belfast to examine conditions and meet residents as part of her official mission to the United Kingdom last week (6th September 2013) Ms Rolnik also met with officials from the Department for Social Development and voluntary organisations.
The visit came in the wake of the Equality Can’t Wait report launched last month by the Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) organisation, which detailed a decade’s worth of missed opportunities and failures by the government to tackle the housing crisis in North Belfast, and made concrete proposals to begin addressing these failings.
The UN Mission is the first official information-gathering visit to the UK by an independent expert focusing on the right to adequate housing.
In addition to making remarks which are applicable to all areas of the UK, the Special Rapporteur singled out particular issues of concern for people living in Northern Ireland. Referring to the previous 2009 findings by the influential UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on religious inequality in north Belfast, Ms Rolnik said:
“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.”
Ms Rolnik also raised concerns over the current proposal to hand housing powers over to local councils:
“Planning systems reforms are also being considered in Northern Ireland, devolving powers to Local Councils, which will also be territorially redefined. In this context, I want to express my concern at the potential that this decentralization may have for increased sectarianism and discrimination.”
Kate Ward of PPR said:
"These remarks from the Special Rapporteur highlight, again, the disgraceful persistence of religious inequality affecting people from the Catholic community in north Belfast. The inequality is well documented yet there is absolutely no strategy to address it. In fact, since the release of the ‘Equality Can’t Wait’ report, the DSD and the NIHE have failed to respond and both the Belfast Harbour Commission and the Belfast City Council have released masterplans for parts of North Belfast which ignore this gaping inequality.”
“What is required is a resourced and timetabled strategy to eradicate this religious inequality. The status quo of denying a problem exists or blaming ‘lack of available land’ is no longer acceptable. The UN Special Rapporteur understood this when she heard from residents and groups working on housing and considered the evidence. It is required by the legislation in our peace agreement and it is absolutely achievable with political will.”
“Allocating public resources, including the provision of social housing, must be done on the basis of targeting evidenced need and inequality. A concerted and determined effort by all those with influence and power is required – in city council, on the NIHE Board, on the Belfast Harbour Commission, and in the Assembly and Executive. The thousands in housing stress in north Belfast deserve no less.”
Ms Rolnik raised further concerns relating to the bedroom tax, and signs of deteriorating access to adequate housing for vulnerable groups such as Travellers and people with a disability.
Ms Rolnik will prepare an official report of her visit, which will be presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council (an inter-governmental body responsible for protecting human rights across the globe) in March 2014.
To read the UN Special Rapporteur's Preliminary Findings, click here.
To read PPR's Equality Can't Wait Report, click here,
To listen to an interview with the UN Special Rapporteur, by the Northern Ireland based The Detail TV, click here.