WATCH: Derry Housing Action Committee 'Housing is a Right' rally held in city
Tenants are 'consistently be at the mercy of rising rents and the potential that their home will be sold out from under them' - Catherine Pollock
The newly re-formed Derry Housing Action Committee's (DHAC) 'Housing is a Right' march and rally has taken place in the city.
Attended by a couple of hundred people, the march left Waterside Train Station at 1.00pm on Saturday afternoon and made its way to Guildhall Square.
DHAC was formed following a series of public meetings involving people with lived experience of the housing crisis and campaigners.
The 'Housing is a Right' rally was supported by Derry Trades Union Council, UNITE, NUJ (Derry and North West), Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), Concerned Residents Around Magee (CRAM), the Gateway Community Club, Unison, NIPSA, Foyle Pride, Creggan Community Collective, Foyle Network Foundation, Derry Alliance For Choice, and the Focus Project.
Thanking them, Derry City and Strabane District councillor Shaun Harkin (People Before Profit), welcomed everyone who had come out in the rain for the march and rally.
He added: "I would like to thank Kate Nash for her support this week, and United Against Racism (Derry and the North West) for its support. Above and beyond the organisations, there are lots and lots of individuals who are supporting this today as well.
"We are genuinely speaking for thousands of people here in Derry who are struggling to get a house, who are trapped on the waiting list, thousands of people who cannot afford their rent, many people who have been unfairly evicted because of rising rents and other issues, and many people who are living in homes with mould and other problems which are just not being fixed.
"We are marching for the people of Derry. We are marching for the people of our district. We are marching for the people of the North West and we are marching for right across the North and right across this island - where there is a massive housing crisis and housing emergency," said Cllr Harkin.
DHAC member Shauna Logue told the rally she had faced "challenges" as a young woman "navigating the housing situation" in Derry to which many others in a similar position could relate.
"When I first sought a rental property, I was filled with hope and ambition, yet what followed was a series of rejections, each more disheartening than the last," added Ms Logue.
"They are a reflection of a larger, systematic problem that is impacting all the people of Derry at the minute.
"Eventually I found myself in a situation that many others would consider less than ideal. I was renting from a private landlord with no formal agreement. As a naive 18-year-old girl at the time, I had no guarantor because I thought this was my only way because, 'Who else was going to take me in?' and I didn't want to be made homeless.
"There were no protections in place for me, no lease that would guarantee my right to stay and no assurance that my rent wouldn't be hiked at any given moment. Living without the security that every tenant deserves, I made payments without any real proof, had many increase and with no deposit returned to me, it left me feeling vulnerable.
"And to nobody's surprise, I left this situation only to struggle further to find a home that still continues to this day," said Ms Logue.
Community activist and Fountain resident, Catherine Pollock, spoke about the "dereliction" getting "worse and worse" in her estate.
"I have seen the waiting list for permanent homes get longer and longer and I have seen the rent in the private sector go up and up," she added.
"And it is not just where I live, it is absolutely everywhere. Everywhere I have been when we have been building for this campaign, there is an individual, a family and a community, somebody in crisis. This connects us all.
"It is not just the 60,000 people on the waiting list who are in the highest need, waiting for home they could call their own. It is also the disabled community, people who don't have access to homes which meet their needs. It is about the working parents who are working sweat, blood and tears to provide for their families and will never get a permanent home because they can't afford a mortgage.
"They will consistently be at the mercy of rising rents and the potential that their home will be sold out from under them.
"This connects us all and what I have been most struck by is the fact people want to share their stories. When you ask them about this, they want to tell you about their individual circumstances and there is power in those stories. There is power in collecting them and shouting them loudly," said Ms Pollock.
The Rally was also addressed by veteran socialist, Eamonn McCann, representatives from CRAM and CATU.
Conor Fleming from CATU sent solidarity greetings to "all of those intimidated and forced out of their homes in those rascist attacks across the North and in the rest of Ireland".
Kathleen Feeney representing CRAM her organisation was concerned about HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) in the city "taking valuable homes away from families".
She added: "The Local Development Plan (LDP) is going to be ratified [by Derry City and Strabane District Council] on June 25 despite our concerns about HMOs.
"That means that 30% of homes in our area are going to be HMOs. That is taking 30% away from family homes and that means, within our area, three out of every 10 homes are going to be HMOs. Greedy landlords are going to come along and take our homes and our streets," said Ms Feeney.
Independent Derry City and Strabane District Councillor, Gary Donnelly referred to the original Derry Housing Action committee, established in 1968, inspired by the Springtown families, to protest about housing conditions and provision in the city.
"They had sit down protests [in the Guildhall]. They led the way," said Cllr Donnelly. "They laid the foundations."
"The gains that were made by those sacrifices are now being dismantled piece by piece and we need to stand up and confront this injustice.
"False promise after false promise from the political system have come and gone. They lack the will because it does not affect them personally. It is not in their interest and they can continue to rely on orange and green politics.
"This has to end, if not for us, then for our children and our grand children. Go raibh míle maith agaibh."
Concluding the speeches, Eamonn McCann said housing was an issue which affected everybody.
"Community politics may have driven us apart but class politics brought us together. It was true back then [1968] and it is just as true now.
"One in five or one in six MLAs are landlords. How can you expect them to intervene in the economy of the area in order to produce fairness? It isn't going to happen. And that is because of the class of the people - not the particular colouration orange or green.
"Class triumps everything in our society; the poorer you are, the more vlnerable you are."