Has the Housing Executive been successful in removing housing policy from sectarian politics?
It is generally agreed that the Housing Executive has been successful in this respect. Smith and Chambers’ study (1989) of people’s perceptions indicates that only 10% of adults thought that the Housing Executive did not give equal treatment to applications from Catholics and Protestants; only 3% of those applying to rent felt that they had been unfairly treated because of their religion. It was more common for people to think the building programme favoured one group over another (18%) and most people who thought this felt that it favoured Catholics rather than Protestants. The report does, however, call on the Housing Executive to check the effect of its policies on equality of opportunity for both the Protestant and Catholic communities. The Standing Advisory Committee on Human Rights (SACHR), in response to Smith and Chambers’ findings, is of the view that PSI’s recommendation “that the NIHE should now move towards explicitly and openly monitoring the results of its policies in the
