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25 Oct 2025
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25 Oct 2025
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Derry Housing Action Committee demanding 'urgent action by government to address housing emergency'.
Members of the Derry Housing Action Committee have occupied Guildhall Square to "demand urgent action by government to address the housing emergency".
The protest is currently taking place - Saturday, October 25.
Derry Housing Action Committee occupying Guildhall Square.
A spokesperson for Derry Housing Action Committee told The Derry News: "In 1968, when thousands were trapped in housing misery, members of the Derry Housing Action Committee occupied the Lecky Road with a caravan. Lack of access to housing forced the Wilson family to live in this caravan in a Brandywell backyard for three years. The conditions the Wilson family faced embodied the housing crisis that thousands were subjected to.
"The failure to provide adequate housing in 1968 was a political choice rooted in sectarian discrimination and indifference to working-class communities.
"In its recent report to Derry City and Strabane District Council, Housing Executive representatives said the gap between housing need and supply continues to widen. Stormont's failure to address social housing scarcity and out-of-control private rental costs are political choices.
"There are more than 50,000 households trapped on the housing waiting list. This includes more than 6,300 families and individuals in the Derry and Strabane Council area, the highest number in the North. Stormont's investment in building social housing is paltry. Its unwillingness to regulate rental costs is cowardly," said the spokesperson.
They added: "The drive by profit-hungry developers, management companies and planners to commercialise and profiteer from housing by turning family homes into HMOs and holiday rentals is compounding the housing crisis.
Derry Housing Action Committee demanding 'urgent action by government to address housing emergency'.
"Government continues to be indifferent to the plight of working-class communities and is focused on facilitating housing for profit and greed.
"Solutions to the housing crisis are not a mystery. Invest in building more social housing to end the gap between need and supply. Regulate rental costs so families aren't impoverished by unaffordable charges, pushed out of their homes and into homelessness. Prioritise housing for need, not for profit.
"We are occupying Guildhall Square today to demand urgent action by government to address the housing emergency."
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