Housing failures due to racist intimidation ignored

The main public body responsible for housing in the North of Ireland has revealed it is failing to properly monitor the effect of racist intimidation on housing security. When asked about the effect “public hate incidents” like the 2025 Ballymena riots had on housing pressure, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) responded simply:

The above information is not held.

The organisation was replying to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by a local migrant rights advocacy group. The NIHE was able to provide information detailing cases where the primary reason for being rendered homeless was filed under “Intimidation – Racial”. It stated there were 21 of these for the period 2024/25.

However, they acknowledged they have no readily available data on cases where:

…an individual cited racist/ xenophobic threats, attacks or harassment as a contributing factor in their application or their request for temporary accommodation and/ or storage of their belongings, beyond it being their primary reason for homelessness.

Housing stats gap hides scale of problem

The NIHE response said looking into this would necessitate a “manual review of case records”. This would require a level of work that would go beyond that permitted for fulfilling an FOI submission. The NIHE is only allowed to spend £450 fulfilling such requests.

Therefore, as a result of this information not being properly compiled into readily available statistics, we are denied proper insight into the true scale of the issue. That’s if the info’s there at all – the NIHE was only able to say they “may” hold some of the details requested.

The group submitting the FoI was seeking further info on the effect rising racist violence is having on the ability for racialised groups to secure safe and stable housing. They requested:

Records or statistics on individuals citing racist or xenophobic threats, attacks,
harassment, intimidation or similar as a factor in their application for:
– Emergency housing
– Homelessness support
– Transfers or removals

They also asked for:

Volume of contacts or referrals received that mention:
– Being “burnt out”, “bricked out” or intimidated out of their homes
– Hate crimes
– Race-related or politically motivated intimidation

The request also asked if these could be broken down by year and location.

Racist attacks likely to be driving 100s out of their homes

Recent large scale attacks by racist mobs have driven large numbers of people from their homes. Following a wave of violent pogroms in Ballymena in June 2025, The Guardian reported:

…houses that were torched remain gutted and boarded up. Of the Roma families who inhabited them there is no sign. There are no official figures but one informed source with ties to the community estimated that of the approximate pre-riot population of 1,200, two-thirds are gone – or, to use a loaded term, ethnically cleansed.

Reports of racist attacks on homes in the Six Counties (a decolonial term for the north of Ireland) are commonly found in the press, and those are just the ones that end up reported on. All in all, the evidence suggests a problem that goes beyond the NIHE-recorded number of 21 cases of homelessness resulting from racial intimidation.

The FOI also asked whether staff “workload [and] morale” had been affected by race-related intimidation. Once again the Housing Executive stated that this information is not collected. The NIHE response was shared with the Canary, and the activist we spoke to explained that failure to fulfil FOIs around housing issues has become increasingly common. They said complaints from asylum seekers around housing quality and safety provided by the company Mears have been frequent. However, their attempts to find out more via Freedom of Information submissions have been unsuccessful.

Our source said that when activists and even local politicians send requests for information to the likes of NIHE or the Northern Ireland Office (the British government’s outpost in the Six Counties), they are typically rejected on costs or security grounds. The claim on the latter excuse is that revealing further info on housing matters might jeopardise the safety of vulnerable migrants. However, the actions of various government bodies indicate little desire to protect those potentially in danger.

Lacklustre response across government agencies

The activist the Canary spoke to offered to help set up a project with NIHE to better monitor the sort of incidents which they are currently failing to track. The housing body initially seemed interested and suggested the matter be taken up with their business development section. However, attempts to pursue the matter resulted in radio silence from the Housing Executive.

Our contact also criticised the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for failure to make use of modern threat monitoring techniques that may predict racist attacks. This includes tracking of social media activity on far-right social media accounts. The PSNI still largely relies on traditional methods such as tip-offs for gauging potential risks to vulnerable individuals and groups.

They said that, in the vacuum left by this failure, NGOs have attempted to do their own prediction. One organisation says it was able to establish that a spike in unpunished racist violence in primary schools could predict racist riots breaking out. It seems this will remain necessary while government bodies fail to do the absolute basics in protecting vulnerable groups amidst a rising tide of unchecked racist hostility.

Featured image via the Canary