Renters’ Voice Legislative Theatre event
In April 2026 Renters’ Voice, in partnership with Arts & Homelessness International, brought together a group of private renters from across Northern Ireland to take part in a Legislative Theatre project on homelessness prevention in the private rented sector. Legislative theatre is a form of community-based theatre that gives experts by experience an opportunity to actively explore and analyse policy.
Over the course of 4 workshops, the group co-created a play based on their collective first-hand experiences of private renting, highlighting issues including:
- Discrimination in application processes
- Access issues from estate agents' long lists of document requirements
- High demand for properties forcing renters to accept poor standards properties
- Long-term repair problems (e.g damp & mould)
- Landlords ignoring rules on rent increases, illegal trespassing and deposit protection
- High rent increases and affordability issues
- No-fault evictions.
The private renters then performed their play to a theatre full of key stakeholders and policy makers.
Policy informed by private renters
Audience members who attended and participated in the event included experts by experience, government officials, representatives from statutory bodies, elected representatives and charities. Following the performance, they were invited into a creative, constructive dialogue about the issues raised in the play. The actors and audience members then collaborated with a panel of policymakers to co-create 3 key policy proposals addressing these issues:
Proposal 1: Improve minimum fitness standards by introducing new energy efficiency standards (including a minimum of Energy Performance Certificate D) and improve enforcement of landlord breaches of housing standards through the Landlord Registration Scheme.
Proposal 2: Legislate to ban no-fault evictions and illegal letting agent fees.
Proposal 3: Legislate to introduce a list of criteria a landlord can request from tenants. In addition, improve tenant access to guarantors via third-party guarantors.
The audience then had the opportunity to propose a series of amendments which you can read in our event report.
The event concluded with each of the members of the policymaker panel committing to short or long-term actions to work towards the proposals, which they will report back on throughout the next year.
Personal impact
As always the impact of this participation project stretched beyond the tangible outputs to the personal impact on those involved. Commenting on the project our private renter actors told us:
“It gave me a sense of purpose, that showed me that I have the ability to help others and promote positive change.”
“The best experience I have had and learned so much.”
“I feel grateful for these projects and the opportunity to be heard and feel like I'm able to be part of change-making decisions.”
Videos and poem
You can watch our event overview video here.
You can watch the full performance here.
The following poem was written by actor Alanya Carson, based on the collective experience of the group, and was performed on the day:
Just to Exist
Rent keeps going up but nothing else does, same place, same problems, just a higher number every month.
Checking my bank and doing the maths over and over, my balance is the only thing that seems to get lower.
Cutting things back just to cover the rent, these saved pennies barely make a dent.
Trying to get a place feels like a lottery, hundreds of people going for the same property, all of us needing it, all of us stuck in the wait, all of us hoping we don’t hear “sorry, it’s too late.”
Filling out forms, sending messages, trying our best, waiting on replies, just like the rest.
Only one gets it, like it’s something to win. Everyone else loses out, applications thrown in the bin.
Living in a private rental with rules on what I can and can’t do, can’t paint the walls or change round the rooms, I’m trying to settle down, but uncertainty looms.
There’s a list of repairs the landlord said he’d get done, but weeks turn to months and still nothing comes.
If you try fix things yourself or speak up too strong, it turns into disputes about who’s right or wrong.
So you learn to live round it, just getting by, paying full rent while the place falls apart inside,
It never feels settled, never feels like home, just living in a space that i don’t really own, scared to get comfortable, scared to belong, cause one letter through the door and you could be gone.
So I’ll just live in this limbo, never knowing where i stand, while landlords raise the prices and agents make demands.
People need real changes, not promises that fade, better rules and proper checks on the choices that are made.
Bad landlords getting away with far more than they should, charging more for less while calling it “all good,” something has to change cause people can’t keep living like this, paying impossible prices just to exist?
So listen when I say, the changes people need, must start today!
Fairer rents, safer homes, and rules that actually protect, holding landlords and agents accountable, giving tenants respect!
Because no one should feel trapped just trying to stay, no one should be priced out of having somewhere safe to lay,
This isn’t just housing, it’s people’s lives on the line, and it’s time we made it right — one change at a time.
If you or anyone you know is interest in joining Renters’ Voice email [email protected] or fill in this form.