Reflections from the TCPA x PPR Take Back the City reception
‘What can we do today in Belfast to not only address the pressing issue of homelessness, but also climate change and sustainability?’
This question was the starting point for the incredible Take Back the City campaign: a grassroots movement that is working to develop a sustainable, equitable and climate-ready community on the site of an ex-industrial site in West Belfast. Tired of waiting for change, the local community has taken bold action to develop their own solution to Belfast’s chronic shortage of affordable housing.
Take Back the City
The 25-acre Mackie’s site has sat largely vacant for 20 years and is situated in an area with some of the highest poverty levels, unemployment rates, and homelessness in Belfast. The Take Back the City campaign brings together homeless families (including those in the asylum system), academics, community organisations, and built environment experts around a shared vision to address the shortage of affordable housing in Belfast. The coalition has developed a masterplan for a mixed-use housing-led development with Matthew Lloyd Architects, following an international design competition in 2022.
Earlier this month, community members, architects, academics and campaigners joined our reception event in London, co-hosted with Belfast-based NGO PPR and sponsored by Northcot Brick, to celebrate the campaign’s achievements so far and to explore what more is needed to help this visionary project succeed.
Belfast’s housing crisis
A safe, stable home is the foundation of a good life, but for too many people this remains out of reach. In Northern Ireland, the housing crisis continues to worsen. There are currently 47,000 households on the housing waiting list, with almost 19,000 children growing up in homeless households. In Belfast, there are more than 2,000 homeless children in the area where the Mackie’s site sits, explained Take Back the City’s Marissa McMahon. She spoke movingly about the city’s hidden homelessness, ‘There are children growing up in hostels or sleeping on their granny’s sofa. Something has to change.’
Creating something visionary
Marissa explained how the Mackie’s site has the potential to provide ‘much more than simply roofs over heads’. Too many new housing developments suffer from bad planning and lack vital infrastructure, with ‘no shops, no buses’. This sentiment was echoed by architect Matthew Lloyd, ‘This isn’t about building new tower blocks… It’s about making a scheme that’s good for everybody.’
The plans for the site include provision of at least 600 sustainable homes and up to 18,000m2 of new employment space. Planned community and social facilities on the site include a community centre with a public square, cafés, a doctor’s surgery, a children’s nursery, a local supermarket and small corner shops. Green infrastructure also forms a significant part of the plans, including a city farm, allotments, private and public gardens, and the planting of hundreds of trees.
Matthew cited the ambition of the Garden City model as a source of inspiration, and explained how the conditions are in place to create something transformational at Mackie’s, ‘The site is big enough to do something fantastic and visionary. Most places can’t produce a scheme like this, they don’t have the land, public ownership, or community.’
Community voices
For Take Back the City, the process has been as important as the end vision. Individuals and families with lived experience of homelessness have been the driving force for change. Community consultation has been a consistent thread during all stages of the project, from door knocking to hosting meetings, and Marissa revealed that local people had been open and honest throughout.
Looking ahead
It was impossible not to be both impressed and moved by what Take Back the City has achieved. Yet, despite making tremendous progress, a backdrop of political tensions continue to threaten the project’s chances of success. Belfast City Council has publicly stated that it wants to grow the city’s housing stock, but it is not on track to achieve this. However, despite the Council’s call for sites to develop, Take Back the City has been told that the Mackie’s site is not needed. The coalition is hoping that this will change, and that the Council will recognise the project’s huge potential: ‘We now need to see the determination shown by homeless families matched by our local decision makers’ explained Marissa.
