The housing crisis in Northern Ireland is a poignant example that the stalemate between Sinn Féin and the DUP has gone too far. As we enter Homeless Awareness Week, it is unthinkable that homelessness is more prevalent in 2017 than ever before in Northern Ireland; hidden homelessness, rough sleeping and housing waiting lists are on the rise. All the while, Stormont lies dormant, the Executive nonfunctioning, and by virtue our political leaders have turned a blind eye to our housing crisis and their constituents caught in the helm of it. 

Speaking earlier today, Sinn Féin Northern leader, Michelle O’Neill, announced that her party will not be returning to power-sharing negotiations. Ms. O’Neill claimed there was ‘no basis’ to resume talks, believing the Secretary of State had done very little to move things forward in respect of achieving ‘equality’ for all citizens.

Right now, over 20,000 people are estimated to be in housing stress in Northern Ireland; hostels are filling to capacity, people are being forced into inadequate living arrangements and worse, onto the streets. Yet, Sinn Fein can’t find a ‘basis’ to return to power-sharing talks. What a sorry indictment of our political class, and a mockery of a ‘rights-based’ approach.

Likewise, the DUP are complicit in leading the housing issue to crisis point. Despite their unwillingness to govern, their will to block land applications for new and much needed social housing builds is alive and well. It is disappointing that the urgent need to tackle homelessness is blurred by Unionist fears that come with the disproportionality of housing need between the two main communal blocs, though more often than not, an inference that is grossly over-exaggerated and tastelessly politicised.

 

When do we say, enough is enough?

It is time to call the DUP and Sinn Féin out on their ‘negligence’. International human rights law recognises everyone’s right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing. Thus, homelessness, much like the tribal arm-wrestling between the DUP and Sinn Féin, belongs in the past.

Housing, like education, makes a difference to the quality of life we lead. When people find themselves in housing crisis, physical and mental illness, financial burden and hopelessness soon follow. What begins a single issue soon quickly unravels into a complex entanglement of social and economic difficulties that people are unable to find a way out of.

Whilst the Housing sector and the community & voluntary sector are doing all they can to deal with this crisis on very limited resources, the DUP and Sinn Féin continue to idly walk the well heated and furnished halls of Stormont with power at their finger tips to make a real difference, but the unwillingness to use it.