On 1 May, private and social tenants, political and community representatives came together to highlight the destructive impact of evictions on individuals, their families and the wider community - and the oppressive power that landlords hold over tenants. During this press conference, an anti-eviction march was announced on Saturday 10th May from Dunville South to Belfast City Hall. The march has been endorsed by several community organisations. See details below and statements from endorsers and organisers.
CATU Belfast spokesperson: "For too long, landlords - both private and social - have been allowed to evict tenants without cause. Private landlords evict their tenants for demanding basic repairs, asserting their legal rights or even attempting to question a rent increase. An eviction ban would empower tenants to challenge landlord power and offer protection from revenge evictions.""The social rented sector once offered tenants far greater protection and security of tenure - but this is being continually eroded. Tenants are evicted at the first sign of arrears and, in the case of tenancy succession, in the immediate aftermath of a bereavement."Our demand is clear: we want safe, secure homes for all. That means no more evictions, the introduction of rent caps and rent reductions, security of tenure for all people, and the end of the broken housing system that prioritises private profit over the public good."
Gerry Carroll MLA: "People in power try to use the housing crisis to divide us - they want us to accuse each other of cheating a broken, rotten system. They want us to blame asylum seekers and migrants, who come here fleeing war, persecution and poverty."
"But working class communities know who’s really to blame - it’s not our fellow tenants. Responsibility for our housing crisis lies with the people in power who cosy up to landlords, and line their pockets with hundreds of millions of pounds each year in housing benefit. The responsibility lies with an Executive that fails to build enough social homes for the people who need them, and refuses to implement rent control for fear of upsetting the landlord class"
"For the past several months, People Before Profit has been working alongside CATU and other housing activists to resist cruel Housing Executive succession evictions. This is the beginning of a fighting housing movement bringing communities together across the north, united in the face of a housing crisis that is devastating working class communities. Join the movement and march against evictions this Saturday 10th May in Belfast."
Sean Doherty (Beechmount Residents Collective): "As a community activist (part of CATU and the Beechmount Residents Collective) I see the impact that evictions have on people first hand. Hundreds of people in my community in west Belfast have been forced out of their homes with nowhere to go."
"They end up in temporary accommodation halfway across the country, sleeping on the sofas of friends and family members or on the streets. We’re sending a clear message to the private and social landlords today - we won’t let you evict us into homelessness and destroy our communities."
Orli Shlachter (private tenant): "I have been in the private rental market, steadily with little exception, since I was 18. I’m now 30 and in that time, I have faced dangerously poor living conditions, extortionate rents, and been threatened with illegal eviction and exploitation three times."
"Without a vast understanding of the minutiae of housing law and the time, energy, and financial resources to fight these fights, renters are pressured into accepting unfair and often illegal terms in order to maintain their tenancies. There is nowhere else to go and it is terrifying. Housing instability is terrifying and the private rental market is designed to be this way so that renters have no power and private landlords have all of it. It’s time for an eviction ban, to give tenants the security and stability they deserve."