On the 13th of May, Take Back the City continued our ground-breaking approach to addressing the housing crisis by submitting a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) to Belfast City Council for homes on the Mackie’s site. This is the first time an application of this nature has been submitted to a council anywhere in Ireland or the UK by a community group who do not currently own the land for which they are making the proposals. The submission has triggered a community consultation process for the masterplan and we are inviting everyone to get involved!
The housing crisis is out of control. Our local institutions have delivered an average of fewer than 1000 units of social housing a year for more than a decade, in a context of rising need; at the end of 2023, at least 18,496 children were living in homeless households, a rise of 33% in less than 3 years. At the current rate, it would take around 50 years to house the current housing waiting list - assuming it doesn’t grow any larger. Clearly the system is broken and only hotel owners and landlords are benefitting - being paid vast sums of public money to keep people on the housing waiting list off the streets. In the last few months alone, our housing clinics have helped 45 families with a myriad of housing problems, with 23 of them facing eviction, and others experiencing intimidation, mould and damp, and displacement away from their communities, schools and support networks.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The Mackie’s site, once home to a machinery and munitions plant, has been lying largely vacant for two decades in the area of the greatest housing need in the city. This is public land, owned by a number of organisations including Invest NI and the Department for Communities, the body with overall responsibility for housing policy in Northern Ireland. The Take Back the City plans for the site include more than 700 homes, as well as employment, shopping, and community spaces.
“Our master plan is a community led response to a growing crisis and decades of failure which has left so many kids without a safe home and so many families struggling to pay the bills,” says Marissa McMahon, Housing Organiser with Take Back the City. “Over 86,000 people are now on our social housing waiting list and local advice organisations are at breaking point dealing with unprecedented levels of demand.”
Our plans include more than 700 mixed tenure homes, which can provide homes for up to 2,500 people, as well as space for employment, workshops, artists’ studios, a community centre, doctor’s surgery, children’s nursery, a local supermarket, corner shops, sustainable energy sources, allotments, a city farm, and a footbridge over the Forth River to connect to the Belfast City Council’s Forth Meadow Community Greenway.
“It has been amazing to be part of something so deeply embedded with the local community and families in housing need.”
Matthew Lloyd Architects won the competition to design the plans in 2023. Matthew Lloyd’s excitement for the project is infectious:
“The masterplan is the result of years of community engagement and a groundbreaking international design competition. It has been amazing to be part of something so deeply embedded with the local community and families in housing need.”
Now it’s time to tell us what you think!
The full plans are available to view at takebackthecity.ie, and a community consultation engagement event will take place on the 10th of September 2024, at Forthspring Inter-Community Group, 373/375 Springfield Road, Belfast, at 12pm. In the meantime, any comments or questions on the proposals can be emailed to info@pprproject.org. If you’d like to show your support for the plans you can take action by signing our petition here: Rezone Mackie's! | Take Back the City