STUDENTS from St Mary’s Christian Brothers Grammar School have had the devastating reality of homelessness detailed to them in a panel discussion held as part of Homelessness Awareness Week.
 
The discussion, which was organised by the Westcourt Centre, was facilitated by the school’s Justice and Advocacy Group and focused upon the scale of the current homelessness situation here, looking at it from a human rights perspective and how young people can use their voice to try to make a difference.
 
The panel included West Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll, The Alliance Party’s Kellie Armstrong MLA who is the Vice-Chair of Stormont’s All-Party Group on Homelessness, Nicola McCrudden, Chief Executive at Homeless Connect, and Paul McCusker from the People's Kitchen.

Opening the session, Cormac McArt from the Westcourt Centre said that the centre has been trying to promote advocacy and education projects around homelessness since 2008 and have been working with the school since 2015 to encourage young people to become more aware of social justice issues around homelessness.
 
“This event was organised by ourselves as part of Homelessness Awareness Week and we were very kindly invited to hold the discussion here in the school by the social justice and advocacy group,” he said.
 
This event formed part of a series by the school across the last month which included a visit to Rosemount House hostel in North Belfast and showcasing a photography exhibition by the Westcourt Camera Club.
 
Nichola McCrudden informed the young people about the work of Homeless Connect and said that most people they work with are considered ‘hidden homeless’.
 
“People might be sofa surfing, living in hostels or moving around to keep a roof over their head,” she said. 

“There is not enough money in the system to build the number of homes that we need or to support the people who are experiencing homelessness. There is not enough temporary accommodation, there is not enough staff to support those in need and when we have no government, there are budgetary constraints.
 
“At the minute all of the money is going into emergency homeless care but we need to rebalance that so that we can try and prevent people losing their homes in the first place but we need the cooperation and the funding to be able to do that.”
 
The students heard how there are currently 45,000 on the social housing waiting list, almost 40,000 people in rent arears, around 15,000 new households finding themselves homeless every year and that there are currently 4,000 children living in temporary accommodation across the North which has increased by 61 per cent since 2019.
 
Councillor Paul McCusker, Gerry Carroll and Kellie Armstrong all agreed that there is a lack of political will at Stormont to tackle the issue of homelessness. 
 
“We think back to during the pandemic when there wasn’t one person sleeping rough in Belfast because there was money put in to make sure that people weren’t sleeping on the streets. If it could happen then, it can happen now,” Cllr McCusker said.

Kellie Armstrong MLA explained her frustration at how the lack of an Executive is impacting on the ability of political representatives to take action to address homelessness. 
 
“At the moment we don’t have an Executive or Assembly so the most proactive piece of work we can do as MLAs in Parliament Buildings is All-Party Groups.
 
“That means that we can raise awareness and be made aware of the issues that are coming forward.”

Gerry Carroll told those gathered that his office is inundated with people presenting as homeless.
 
“We have systemic and societal problems as to why people are homeless,” he said.
 
“I think frankly the problem is that there are too many landlords in Stormont. They advocate for the interests of landlords and we had the ridiculous situation where I had proposed to freeze rents for two years.

“Every party voted for it then voted against it the week after. We had MLAs saying that they were landlords and would be financially hit by it 
 
“Rents are too high, and somebody has to take the hit. That should be landlords,” he said.
 
The young men also heard the experience of a number of people who have experienced homelessness.

EXHIBITION: The school also displayed images captured by the Westcourt Camera Club
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EXHIBITION: The school also displayed images captured by the Westcourt Camera Club


 

Lorna Donnelly told them of how she and her family had been made homeless after coming under threat by paramilitaries and struggled to find another home.
 
“There were four of us in the house and when I was 16, two days after getting my GCSE results, I was made homeless and was homeless for five and a half years.
 
“We were made homeless because of paramilitary intimidation and had to leave the area where we grew up. When I turned 18 the Housing Executive told me that I had to leave my mum's care and find my own accommodation.
 
“I was homeless for five and a half years and my mummy was homeless for seven and a half years. Each time one of us turned 18, my mummy lost housing points.
 
“It was a very traumatic time and since then I have worked in the Housing Executive, in hostels and with Housing Rights to help people who have found themselves homeless.
 
“For years the system has been broken and the statistics show this but the action isn’t there and the houses aren’t being built,” she said.
 
They pupils also heard from two men who are currently living in Rosemount House, including their battles with addiction and how they had been offered drink and drugs in hostels which were supposed to be dry.