People Before Profit Councillor Shaun Harkin has said the Stormont Executive is delivering a catastrophic housing failure,
Said Cllr Harkin: “The announcement by the DUP Communities Minister that this year’s paltry target for social house building has been reduced by 50% to 1,000 is shameful.
“It’s a slap in the face to the thousands of families trapped on the waiting list.
“Even though the Stormont Executive last year belatedly declared there is a housing crisis, it refuses to prioritise funding to build homes.
“There are almost 50,000 households on the waiting list, equating to more than 90,000 people. Yet, last year the Stormont Executive only managed to build a pathetic 1,504 new social homes.
WThe Stormont Executive signed off on a target of 5,800 new social homes by 2027. This is nothing close to what is needed, but it is incapable of even delivering on this target.
“The Stormont Executive’s inaction means more families will remain trapped on the waiting list, stuck in hotels and in unsuitable temporary accommodation.
“It means rental costs will continue to spiral and migrants will continue to be wrongly and unfairly scapegoated for government failure.
“A DUP Minister oversees housing policy but this crisis has been long in the making. Sinn Féin and the rest of the Executive are fully responsible for this catastrophic failure.
“The Stormont Executive has made it clear we can’t leave it to them.
“They know it’s an emergency but compound the housing crisis rather than taking urgent action to address it.
“We need a people power push to shift Stormont’s priorities.”
