Leading housing advice charity, Housing Rights today (Tuesday 14th May 2024) held a special event in the Long Gallery in Parliament Buildings Stormont to mark its 60th anniversary and to launch the charity’s new Strategic Plan 2024-29.
The charity, which works to improve lives by helping people with homelessness and housing problems, was delighted to hear from its distinguished keynote speaker at the event, Mr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, who made his first visit to Northern Ireland in this role.
At the event, Housing Rights reflected on the last 60 years, heard from leading professionals and experts about the key role the organisation has and continues to play in changing the housing landscape and launched a book celebrating its long and esteemed history as the leading independent housing advice charity in Northern Ireland.
Highlighting the scale of the housing and homelessness crisis in Northern Ireland, Housing Rights’ Chief Executive, Kate McCauley, said,
Over the past sixty years, Housing Rights has been at the forefront of helping people to overcome their housing problems. As we look forward into our seventh decade, we know that regrettably, our work has never been more needed. The challenges ahead of us remain serious and entrenched. Too many people cannot afford a decent home. Too many people are waiting too long in unsuitable accommodation, and we face new threats from the impact of climate change, which risk deepening long standing inequalities in housing.
The event also saw the launch of Housing Rights’ Strategic Plan 2024-2029, as the organisation looks to the future, ready to continue to support and help people in housing crisis across Northern Ireland. Ms McCauley continued,
Housing Rights is ambitious about preventing homelessness, determined to find new and better ways of working and more committed than ever, to a society when everyone has a home.
Contact Housing Rights for further information.