Housing inequality conference to be held in Belfast

» Michael McMonagle

"Inequality in the allocation of homes is stark in places like North Belfast but it is a pattern that is repeated across the North as evidenced by data from leading international bodies such as the United Nations who have called for the situation to be urgently redressed." - Carál Ní Chuilín

A major conference on housing inequalities will be held in Belfast later this month. 

The conference, which is organised by Sinn Féin, will be held in the Duncairn Arts and Cultural Centre in north Belfast on Friday, January 26 and will hear from housing and human rights experts, as well as Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson, Carál Ní Chuilín. 

Speakers will include Seán Brady from human rights group, Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR), and Daniel Holder from the Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ). 

The theme of the conference is 'Need Not Creed' and it will examine the inequalities in the social housing sector across the north, and in north Belfast in particular, where allegations of sectarianism in allocations and house building programmes have been repeatedly raised. 

Successive reports from the Equality Commission and Human Rights Commission have identified inequalities in the housing system in north Belfast, together with the general lack of new-build social housing across the north. 

Speaking ahead of the conference, Sinn Féin housing spokesperson and North Belfast MLA Carál Ní Chuilín said: 

“As a direct result of bad policy, the failure to build sufficient numbers of social homes and the refusal to implement a rights-based approach, we are now witnessing levels of homelessness and overcrowding that should have been consigned to the past.

“Inequality in the allocation of homes is stark in places like North Belfast but it is a pattern that is repeated across the North as evidenced by data from leading international bodies such as the United Nations who have called for the situation to be urgently redressed.

"But it won’t come about by wishing for it. We need to demand it, campaign for it and mobilise for it. This conference is part of that campaign and I hope to see as many people as possible there to demand their rights." 

The conference will be held in the Duncairn Arts and Cultural Centre on Friday, January 26 from 10am to 1pm.