Organisers and campaigners from the #TakeBackTheCity campaign for much-needed social housing on the 26 acre, vacant, publicly-owned Mackie’s site in West Belfast met the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, in Belfast. They told him about their personal experiences of the broken housing system here, but also about their hopes for the plan  – submitted to Belfast City Council this week – for a new ‘Garden City’ on the Mackie’s site.

PPR’s briefing to the Special Rapporteur addressed issues of evictions, homelessness, poor living conditions and unsuitable temporary accommodation, tracing their roots back to the consistent failure of the state to build sufficient quantities of social housing in response to objective need.

Image caption: Architect Matthew Lloyd’s plan provides for up to 725 homes of different types, alongside over 18,000 m2 of new employment space envisioned for light and creative industries, a community centre with a public square, cafés, a doctor’s surgery, a children’s nursery, a local supermarket and small corner shops. There is also a city farm, allotments, gardens and a new footbridge over the Forth Valley to Belfast City Council’s Forth Meadow Community Greenway.

PPR commended the Mackie’s plans submitted by #TakeBackTheCity to Council this week to the Special Rapporteur as an example of how people directly impacted by housing stress, homelessness, poverty and sectarianism can lead the way in rethinking how states can deliver sustainable and good quality housing to meet need.