Catholic / Protestant quota-style system now in force in 28 new housing developments

placeholder image — The shared neighbourhoods which have already been built

Just over one-tenth of all new social housing in Northern Ireland is being designed specifically to mix Catholics and Protestants together.

The News Letter can reveal that roughly £150 million has so far been allocated for 59 such mixed housing projects across the Province, of which 28 are completed.

By the time all 59 are finished, they will comprise 1,733 individual homes.

Here is an interactive map showing exactly where all of the new neighbourhoods are / will be

The government monitors the religious, national, and ethnic make-up of these new neighbourhoods, with the idea being to make sure “no one community is in the dominance of more than 70%” according to the Department for Communities (which is basically running the scheme).

For example, if a new 100-home estate was being built, it would have to have no more than 70 Protestant households in it.

Or to put it another way, at least 30% of households would have to be non-Protestant.

Naturally, it applies vice-versa for Catholics.

When it first started in 2008, the scheme came under the rubric of “Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC)”.

These days the scheme is called “Housing for All” (although confusingly, it is also often referred to as the “Shared Neighbourhood Programme” or the “Shared Housing Programme”).

A MAJOR PROJECT, ATTRACTING LITTLE NOTICE:

In short, it is the Stormont government’s effort at physically de-segregating housing in Northern Ireland – though for such a significant project, it has attracted relatively little attention.

Ever since 2008, the number of cross-community housing developments has been quietly growing year on year.

Now the News Letter has taken a look at some of the hard numbers behind the project.

Each new housing estate is developed by non-profit bodies called housing associations, like Clanmil or Radius.

The government subsidises these via the Housing Association Grant (HAG), which normally pays for about 50% of the build costs of wach development, with the rest of the money being borrowed privately by the housing association.

A Good Relations Support grant is also available from Executive funds.

In all, the Department for Communities has told the News Letter that the government intends to construct 1,900 social homes of all kinds every year – of which 200 will be in shared schemes (roughly 11%).

The department has told the News Letter it “does not anticipate increasing this target”.

More from this reporter:

Click here – Condemnation of INLA funeral assembly in dedicated mixed housing estate

Click here – RUC ‘collusive’ findings: WATCH as DUP man denounces IRA while speaker Alex Maskey tries to rein him in for ‘going off-topic’

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