A home for all: creating housing opportunity in Northern Ireland

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“Having a home means everything,” says Serge, a young father living in Northern Ireland. When his marriage ended, Serge lost the house he had bought and shared with his partner, finding himself suddenly homeless. He lived in temporary accommodation and homeless shelters for two years, struggling to build a new life for himself. Then, with the support of Housing Rights Northern Ireland, a not-for-profit organisation that provides legal advice, mediation support, and information services to prevent evictions and homelessness, Serge secured permanent housing.

Today, he has a stable home where his children come to stay with him, and a renewed hope for the future. His story is one of thousands supported by Housing Rights since the organisation was founded in 1964.

Housing Rights is one of a group of organisations working to ensure that everyone in Northern Ireland has access to a safe, secure, and affordable home. Each organisation brings a unique approach, yet shares the same goal: ending homelessness and creating housing opportunity across the region.

“In addition to frontline support for people with housing problems, our work is also about strengthening the sector in Northern Ireland,” says Kate McCauley of Housing Rights. “There’s quite a lot of people engaged in really important work to improve housing and homelessness outcomes. We help these organisations by providing advice, information, and training across Northern Ireland, so that no matter where people live here, they can access good quality advice. That’s what changes people’s lives.”

Centring lived experience

Community Foundation Northern Ireland is an independent grant-making trust which provides funds and support to over 1,000 groups working on housing, social issues, and peacebuilding in the region. The foundation’s Social Innovation and Community Voice Programme  Housing and Homelessness Programme aims to address the root causes of housing and homelessness by fostering collaboration between different organisations working on the issue and supporting the design and development of new solutions.

“We listen and we learn from what grassroots communities are telling us is needed, and then we fund in a way that supports them to do good in their communities as best as they can. They know better than us [what is needed],” says Orla Black of the Community Foundation.

Other organisations are also working closely with people with lived experience of homelessness. Participation and Practice of Rights (PPR) works with a growing network of communities across Ireland, using human rights as tools for change.

In Belfast, PPR leads the “Take Back the City” coalition, a campaign focused on transforming public land into a resource for community-led housing. The coalition brings together people on the social housing waiting list, as well as architects, and local organisations to co-design new neighbourhoods. Future residents have actively helped shape the planning of these housing communities. Since 2019, PPR has identified six vacant lots in the city as potential sites for construction, with homes planned or built on five of these. You can learn about its plan for the sixth development, here.

“A key part of our grassroots organising is to bring people together, people from all traditions, political, religious, and ethnic backgrounds because that’s where the power lies,” says Conal Matthews, a coalition organiser within the organisation. “That’s why we work with people with lived experiences, to be agents of their own change.”

Providing safety, support, and second chances across the region

Organisations are also working to ensure that all people in need of housing support are reached, including those living outside of cities or who might not be visibly struggling.

Based out of L/Derry and Fermanagh and working across Northern Ireland, First Housing Aid and Support Services  offers long term-housing solutions including temporary supported accommodation; housing advice; and gloating support for specific vulnerable groups who live in private or social housing sectors, including young people, families, individuals with poor mental health, and older people.

First Housing responds to specific challenges facing rural parts of Northern Ireland, including the issue of hidden homelessness, which describes people who are not living on the streets or in homeless shelters, but rather in insecure, inadequate, or temporary shelters such as in garden sheds, caravans, or boats. Here, the lack of housing and of services adds further to the complexity of homelessness in rural areas.

“The vision of First Housing is the eradication of homelessness, where everyone in Northern Ireland has access to a safe, affordable home, where they can improve their confidence and improve their mental health, and feel safe,” says Maria Thompson, project coordinator of First Housing in Fermanagh.

And indeed, the families that these organisations have touched have found a renewed sense of security and confidence in their futures.

“Now, I can do my part to keep the relationship going with my children, so down the line, they can always say, Dad is still around. He hasn’t packed his bags and left,” says Serge. “That is the hope that keeps me going.” Today, Serge dreams of one day buying another home of his own.

Oak supports the work of Housing Rights, Community Foundation Northern Ireland, First Housing Aid and Participation and Practice of Rights through our Housing and Homelessness Programme. We believe that genuinely affordable and suitable housing must be within reach for everyone and that this is key in building a fairer society. Watch the video below to find out more: