Sinn Fein has called for Belfast councillors to 'pressurise' the Bishop of Down and Connor and the Legion of Mary over the closing of a Belfast women’s hostel.
Belfast Council, in an emergency meeting on Monday (January 17), accepted a motion forwarded by the SDLP and People Before Profit, amended by Sinn Fein, which called for the Regina Coeli women’s hostel, which is due to be closed next month, to remain open.
The council seeks an urgent meeting of interested elected officials in the city, the Stormont Minister for Communities, Northern Ireland Housing Executive and Department for Communities officials, the management committee of Regina Coeli, Bishop of Down and Connor and the Legion of Mary.
The meeting will discuss all options on how to secure the future of the facility as accommodation for homeless and vulnerable women in the city.
The motion states the council is "disappointed and angered by the lack of response by the site owners the Legion of Mary to meet with staff, union representatives, elected members and DfC officials".
It adds the organisation "continues to not to live up to its own values and continues to ignore those trying to find solutions".
No parties objected to the amendment by Sinn Fein, who made an extraordinary attack on the owners, Catholic voluntary organisation the Legion of Mary, who have been limiting all communication to lawyers. The party’s group leader in the council, Ciaran Beattie, added the council had to “stand up” to the Bishop of Down of Connor, Noel Treanor.
Regina Coeli House, which opened in 1935, is the only women’s homeless accommodation facility in Northern Ireland, and is due to close at the end of February, after a management decision based on the condition of the building. Workers have been occupying the facility in a protest sit-in since last week.
It has around 20 beds but has had to reduce the number of residents it can accommodate due to Covid. The BBC reported last week the facility currently has only three residents. A recent survey of the building found that it needed substantial repairs costing more than £500,000.
At Monday’s emergency council meeting two members of staff and a union representative spoke to elected members. Unite rep Susan Fitzgerald said: “It is starting to look like this service was consciously run down. From 21 staff down to just five remaining paid staff, and volunteers.
“I have heard some of the first hand accounts of treatment, of the poor, and to put it mildly, inappropriate treatment staff have endured by sections of the management, and as a trade union official, who hears all sorts, I have been genuinely shocked.”
Sinn Fein Councillor Ciaran Beattie told the chamber: “Everybody here is on the same page with this one, in terms of the need for these services to be kept.”
He added: “But the elephant in the room is the owner. The owner is the Legion of Mary, who sit on the Diocese of Down and Connor.
“A quick google search of the Diocese of Down and Connor will tell you they have £159million in their total reserves. It isn’t that they are short of money. They have made a number of sales of huge sites for millions and millions of pounds. They have a huge property portfolio, they rake in millions of pounds every year, yet they have chosen to close down this hostel.
“There is no lack of funding in terms of provision, the Housing Executive is providing funding, the Department for Communities are providing funding, and they all want it open. The people who are choosing to close this facility are the Legion of Mary, sitting under the diocese of Down and Connor. So we need the bishop in the room.
“If this was a landlord in Beechmount, the Shankill or anywhere else in Belfast, who was evicting their tenants and saying 'we don’t have the money to do the repairs, away you go' - we would be calling them slum landlords. Anyone who closes down a facility, and has the money in their bank account, we need to be calling them out. ”
He added: “We do believe the minister should be around the table with the Housing Executive, and we do believe there should be a long term strategy around hostels for women.
"I have heard the minister should step in and take it into ownership - the reality is a compulsive vesting order would take a considerable period of time. You can’t just go up to someone and say give us the keys to your house. It can take years - that is unrealistic at this stage.
“What we want is for the owners to commit - if they want to hand it over, happy days, that would be an easy result for us all. But they won’t even talk to anyone, they won’t talk to the minister, they won’t talk to the Housing Executive, they won’t talk to the MP, who has been contacting them for months.
“I think this is an opportunity for us as elected members to stand up to the Bishop of Down and Connor, and say: why do you not want to come and meet us? Why do you want to close this hostel down? You have got the money in your bank account to keep it open, if you don’t want to keep it open long term, let’s look at solutions.
“We should show what political might we have to try and pressurise the Bishop of Down and Connor to come to the table and make a commitment to these women.”
People Before Profit Councillor Fiona Ferguson, who tabled the original motion with SDLP Councillor Paul McCusker, said: “In a week where women are reminded of the fear and dangers which face us because of the deep rooted misogyny in society, it is incredibly concerning that a vital refuge for women faces closure in our city.
“This closure will hurt women in need and the women who are trained and work incredibly hard to support them. There is a duty of care on the Minister for Communities and the Housing Executive to step in and to save this service from closure.
“I am very glad that the council has voted for the emergency motion tonight which will see those responsible brought together to find a long term solution to this.”
