Residents and staff at the North’s only hostel for homeless women have said they are “fearful” of what might happen to vulnerable women if the facility closes.
The remaining residents have refused to leave Regina Coeli House in west Belfast despite letters "terminating their licence to occupy any room in the building", according to trade union Unite.
The general secretary of Unite, Sharon Graham, said "threats to evict vulnerable women residents" were "disgraceful".
Residents were afraid for their mental and physical health if they were forced to leave and said the lack of a women-only hostel would put other women and girls in danger.
She said it was a “vital facility for vulnerable women – not just in Belfast but across Northern Ireland” and it was “shocking that this facility faces the prospect of closure, leaving women in crisis with no place to go.
"Surely in the tragic aftermath of the murder of Ashling Murphy it is inconceivable that this place of safety for women could shut its doors?"
The hostel was opened by the Legion of Mary in 1935 and is due to close by the end of February.
It has space for a maximum of 21 residents – though currently only three remain – and provides support to homeless women as well as women who have suffered from addiction, trafficking, sexual abuse and domestic abuse.
Significant maintenance
The management company which runs the hostel has previously said it is closing because the building requires significant maintenance work which would cost approximately £500,000 (€598,000).
Members of staff have been occupying the building since last week and have been taking part in a “work-in” in protest at the proposed closure. Unite said staff have been suspended and have received redundancy notices.
On Wednesday, the union said the remaining residents received what were effectively eviction notices, issued on the basis that "the management committee can no longer provide the services for which they have been contracted by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive [NIHE]".
Unite said this left residents with “a choice between entering mixed-sex accommodation, which is inappropriate to their needs, or single-unit temporary accommodation where they will be left without any support or access to onsite counselling services”.
More than 10,000 people have signed an online petition calling on the Legion of Mary, the NIHE and the North's Minister for Communities, Deirdre Hargey, to come together to reverse the threatened closure of the hostel.
Earlier this week a motion was passed at a special meeting of Belfast City Council, committing to seek an urgent meeting of all interested parties.
Trustees’ decision
In a statement to The Irish Times this week, a spokeswoman from the North’s Department for Communities – which provides funding for Regina Coeli House through a programme administered by the NIHE – said the decision to close the facility was “taken by its board of trustees who, as the employing authority, are also responsible for the terms and conditions of the staff it employs”.
She said departmental officials met with Unite representatives and the MP for the area, Paul Maskey of Sinn Féin, and "expressed Minister Hargey's concerns about the trustees' decision, and emphasised that the department would consider proposals provided to it by the Legion of Mary.
“None have been provided to this point,” the spokeswoman said.
The Irish Times attempted to contact the Legion of Mary but had not received a response by the time of publication.
