Integrated
Social Housing: Implications for New Build
by Brendan Murtagh and Shauna McDaid, Social and Community Sciences,
University of Ulster 2000
The demographic characteristics of Protestants and Catholics also differ
significantly in residentially segregated areas. Catholic communities are
characterised by higher than average family sizes, higher fertility rates
and are more youthful demographic structure. The Protestant population is
older, with smaller household sizes and lower than average fertility rates
(Compton, 1995).
When these demographics are acted out in highly segregated space then very
different housing needs statements result in terms of the number, size,
type and location of units (Compton, 1995) (6).
Kirk (1993), Paris et al. (1997) and Murtagh (1998) have all found evidence
of symmetrical land and property markets in operation in both urban and
rural areas. Different sets of estate agents, developers and solicitors
can, in some cases, serve almost self-contained systems, thus producing
and reproducing residential segregation in the housing market. McPeake (1998)
also demonstrated how Catholics and Protestants engage in distinctive search
patterns in the private sector property market in Belfast (7).
There are also the direct costs associated with the construction of peacelines
(£2m at 1994 prices), loss of revenue in housing rent (£0.5m per annum)
and security adaptations to dwellings (NIHE, 1987) (8).
Inefficiencies are compounded by the implicit or explicit provision of dual
facilities to serve different ethno-religious spatial catchments. Much of
the land and property within contentious areas is blighted for housing use
and the construction of safe neutral buffer zones is not always possible
given the configuration of the ethno-religious map in certain places (NIHE,
1987) (9).
The negative image that brutal lines of division, physical dereliction and
poverty project to a wider and, in particular, international audience can
be a major obstacle to investment and tourism and diminish the quality of
redevelopment work of the Housing Executive (Neill, 1995) (10).
Table 1.1 The rationale for integrated housing and the costs of segregation
|
No.
|
Issue
|
Description
of Need
|
Empirical
Source
|
|
1
|
Activity
segregation
|
Activity
segregation resulting in facilities and services 'trapped' in the
territory of the out-group
|
Boal
(1969)
|
|
2
|
Community
institutions and critical mass
|
Locality
population change undermines local institutional capacity thus accelerating
'exit' and the critical mass of the community necessary for sustainability
|
Poole
and Doherty (1996)
Paris
et al. (1997)
TAR
(1996)
|
|
3
|
Deprivation
|
High
rates of socio-economic deprivation reflecting the residents weak
bargaining power in the housing allocation and transfer system
|
TAR
(1996)
Life
on the Interface (1993)
|
|
4
|
Quality
of life
|
Pervasive
sense of fear, danger and direct violence to people and property
|
NIHE
and EHSSB (1995)
|
|
5
|
Death
and injury
|
Higher
rate of death and violence in areas where the ethno-religious map
is most contested
|
Fay
et al. (1997)
|
|
6
|
Demographic
imbalance and housing need
|
High
demand in Catholic areas fuelled by higher than average fertility
rates, family sizes and younger age profiles. Protestant demographics
generate comparatively less housing need particularly given the
wider choice of housing search territory.
|
Compton
(1995)
|
|
7
|
Symmetrical
land and property markets
|
The
reproduction of segregated space through symmetrical and often self-contained
property markets
|
Kirk
(1993)
Paris
et al. (1997)
McPeake
(1998)
|
|
8
|
Direct
costs
|
Physical
construction of peacelines, buffer zones and security adaptations
to property
|
NIHE
(1987)
|
|
9
|
Blight
of land and property
|
Land
and housing near interface areas blighted by fear, violence and
lack of investment confidence
|
NIHE
(1987)
|
|
10
|
Image
|
Negative
imagery produced by walls of division, sectarian graffiti and physical
dereliction to investors and tourists
|
Neill
(1995)
|
1.7 Report structure
The next section (2) examines a range of approaches to integrated housing
in various national and societal contexts. This provides some useful comparative
insights into the challenges in Northern Ireland. Section 3 describes the
statistical context of the problem and maps the Districts that hold the
potential for a new build integrated scheme. Sections 4, 5 and 6 evaluates
the possibilities on a District basis and explores what, if any, role mixed
social rented housing might play in these settings. The last section (7)
sets out the implications of the research for new build integrated housing
in Northern Ireland.
|
