In 1998, when the Good Friday Agreement was born, I was only 9 and as a young lad growing up in East Belfast then, I must admit, that I knew little about the scale or significance of what had happened. In delivering relative peace the Good Friday Agreement laid the foundations for change, but we must ask the question when we look at service delivery, ‘have we really built upon those foundations’?
If we take for example housing, and much in the way a house is built on secure foundations, so are the foundations I have mentioned that the Good Friday Agreement had created. However, when we delve beneath the surface, one would be forgiven for being critical of the failure to build upon those foundations to deliver a better future for all of our people.
As many came to Belfast over the past number of days to mark 25 years from that historic moment, many more across Northern Ireland woke up each morning facing the same challenges they had the week before and will continue to face in the weeks and months ahead. One of those significant challenges is the unacceptable lack of social housing. Since 1998 the social housing waiting list has continued to grow to the extent it has nearly doubled, with now close to 45,000 applicants on those waiting lists, many of whom have given up hope of being housed by a broken system.
However, this isn’t something that has come out of nowhere, indeed, if we look at the report from the Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs which was prepared on 25 October 2004 the Northern Ireland Tenants Action Project and the Housing Community Network told the committee:
"It is a source of continuing and growing concern to local community groups across Northern Ireland that the Waiting List for social housing, including the number of applicants in ‘housing stress’ has continued to grow, particularly at a time when it is evident that the provision of new social housing is not keeping pace with the rising levels of housing stress.”
If you spoke to many across our society today and read the above statement to them without indicating the point in time it was made, I’m confident the majority would attribute it to the present day, which is a damming indictment of the current state of play.
The lack of social housing is not by any means a new problem, but it is one that has been an issue for many years. Furthermore, with the increasing budgetary pressures, there will be no overnight fix but there are steps which can be taken, these include enabling the Housing Executive to borrow against its vast stock allowing them to invest in their current housing stock and also work to deliver much-needed new housing. We also need to examine how housing need is determined and, during this period of incredible demand, work to utilise available land.
However, just like in 2017-2020 much of this work will be impacted by the lack of a functioning Executive.
If we do not grasp the opportunity and work to build on those foundations, we will continue to fail so many across our society, whether that be by not delivering much-needed social housing, tackling poverty, hospital waiting lists or the plethora of other issues.