Campaigners have called on nationalist ministers at Stormont to end housing “inequality” in north Belfast.
The plea came after nationalist politicians took control at several key assembly departments when the Stormont institutions were restored last month.
The Department for Infrastructure is now headed by north Belfast MLA Nichola Mallon, while the new housing minister is Sinn Féin’s Deirdre Hargey.
Her party colleague Conor Murphy now holds the purse strings at Stormont since being appointed as finance minister.
The calls came after it emerged that the need for social housing in a Catholic area of north Belfast is 26 times greater than in neighbouring Protestant district.
An area defined by the Housing Executive as ‘North Belfast One’, which includes Ardoyne and Carrick Hill, showed an average need of 1041 homes in 2018/19.
When compared with ‘North Belfast Two’, which includes Mount Vernon and White City, there was an average need of 40 homes during the same period.
Veteran campaigner Frank Dempsey, who is a member of St Patrick’s and St Joseph’s Housing Committee, has called on the new Stormont ministers to act on housing shortage.
“It’s time to deliver an end to the inequality in housing,” he said.
“We have now have in post in the Department for Communities, Department for Infrastructure and Department of Finance people with housing backgrounds,” he said.
“Now is the time to seize this opportunity and end this inequality.”
He said that publicly owned property allocated for use in the Northside regeneration scheme, which collapsed in 2016, should now be used to provide new homes.
The campaigner added that some privately owned land which formed part of the scheme should also be vested.
“We have been campaigning from the early 80s on housing and what we are saying is we want an end to the nightmare of inequality or discrimination in housing,” he said.
“Housing should be based on need not creed and housing should be taken out of politics.”
SDLP homelessness spokesman Paul McCusker, who is a councillor in north Belfast, said the recently released figures “are worrying but unfortunately are not surprising to many of us in North Belfast, who have been aware for some time of the difficulties.
“Behind these figures are families who have been waiting, many for years and in inadequate conditions, to get a house and build a home,” he said.
“They should not have to wait any longer.”
Housing minister Ms Hargey this week said she was “very concerned by the housing inequalities highlighted”.
