HOUSING campaigners and community groups have marched in Belfast calling for an end to evictions.
Protestors marched from Dunville Park on the Falls Road, along the Grosvenor Road, before gathering at Belfast City Hall. The march was endorsed by several community groups, including PPR, Anaka Women's Collective, Beechmount Residents' Collective, the People's Housing Bill campaign group, Glór na Móna, An Dream Dearg and Trademark Belfast.
Speaking ahead of the demonstration Hannah Gibson from Community Action Tenants' Union (CATU) said the protest would "shine a light on the destructive impact of evictions on tenants, their families and the wider community".
"For too long, private and social landlords have been allowed to evict tenants without cause," said the CATU Belfast chair. "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."
Seán Doherty from Beechmount Residents' Collective said as a community activist he sees 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," he added.
"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 this weekend – we won’t let you evict us into homelessness and destroy our communities.”
