Minority Groups

June 2017 will see Housing Rights and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive embark on an exciting new peer project that will increase access to housing advice in black and minority ethnic communities, including refugees, and all others who identify with this group. 

A new report from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) has found that migrants, British citizens without passports and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups living in England are being discriminated against when searching for a home in the Private Rented Sector (PRS), due to the Government’s Right to Rent Scheme.  

From 30^th January 2017, the amount of time for which a claimant will be able to receive Housing Benefit whilst temporarily absent from Northern Ireland will be reduced, in most cases, to a maximum of 4 weeks. The change applies to both working age claimants and state pension credit age claimants.

Housing Rights believes that everyone should have the right to live in a home which is safe and secure. Unfortunately, Northern Ireland, like the rest of the UK, experiences regular incidents of hate crime.