Campaigners in north Belfast believe authorities are bowing to political pressure by not providing land for the development of social housing.
Frustrated campaigners say delays in replacing unfit housing and acquiring development ground has resulted in hundreds of people remaining trapped on the district's waiting lists
Around 2,388 applicants in the north Belfast area currently deemed to be in housing stress.
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Call for more social housing in north Belfast
Campaign groups say plans to build more houses have been hampered after plots of land earmarked for development were reallocated for other use.
They say that promises to complete the replacement of stock in the Upper Long Streets area of New Lodge, along with a pledge to remove several tower blocks in the district, have also been delayed.
Liam Wiggins, from the New Lodge Housing Forum, said that as part of the planned work in the Upper Long Streets residents were to be moved to nearby tower blocks temporarily.
Campaigners say there are as many as 350 condemned houses in the district.
"They were talking about decamping to the tower blocks but then they wanted to knock the tower blocks down," Mr Wiggins explained.
Under a 2019 action plan, housing chiefs suggested work to dispose of or revamp the majority of the New Lodge tower blocks will take more than ten years to complete.
Gerard Brophy from St Patrick's and St Joseph's Housing Association said many homes in the tower blocks are currently in a poor state of repair and suffer from bad heating and dampness, while kitchen facilities are outdated and the blocks do not have a sprinkler system in place.
He said that if essential cladding work was carried out on the tower blocks it could ease the damp problems faced by residents.
"In this day and age people should not be living like that in Upper Long Streets and the tower blocks," he said.
"Most of the tower blocks are going to be here in 20 years and some will be here for the next 20 or 30 years," he said.
"Let's be honest, they are not coming down in the foreseeable future, I would say they will not come down for 40 years but these blocks will not last 40 years."
Frank Dempsey of Carrick Hill Residents' Association said housing chiefs have been trying to acquire vacant sites locally for years.
"How long are people in housing waiting lists, both Catholic and Protestant, going to be denied," he said.
Mr Dempsey said that in the past the Department for Communities (DfC) has vested land in the area for other projects.
"But here we are campaigning for social housing and there's total silence, we are being fobbed off," he said.
He said two sites are currently available for vesting in the Clifton Street area, close to Belfast Orange Hall.
"These sites are available and the Department for Communities....are bowing to political pressure not to vest these sites," he said.
A spokesman for the DfC said it "recognises the need for housing in this area and continues to explore the acquisition of these sites for this purpose".
"In cases where the landowner cannot be identified or where agreement on a site purchase cannot be reached, vesting may then be considered,” he said.
A spokesman for the Housing Executive said "plans for the improvement of the Upper Long Streets are progressing".
He said plans to demolish three tower blocks are still in place and that new kitchens and bathrooms have been installed at flats across two of the blocks.
He added that “an indicative refurbishment programme for the longer term blocks has been agreed" and will "commence in 2024 at the earliest".
