'Racist agitators' behind HMO attacks

A Belfast city councillor has described recent attacks on houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in east Belfast as racially motivated.

Green Party cllr Brian Smyth said HMOs have become the "new battleground for several known online racist agitators to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment".

The attacks, which took place at around 00:45 BST on Tuesday 31 March in the Templemore Avenue and Paxton Street areas, targeted a number of properties.

Windows were broken and graffiti was daubed on the outside of the houses. Police said a family who were in one of the homes at the time were not injured but were left badly shaken.

Police added that a hate crime motivation is a "line of enquiry".

BBC News NI understands that two young girls were in one of the homes at the time of the attack.

Green Party cllr Brian Smyth told The Nolan Show that many of the "issues arising with HMOs in the last number of months" are racially motivated.

"HMOs have become the new battleground for several known online racist agitators to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment," he said.

Smyth added that the attacks need to be "quickly curtailed because it's going to spiral out of control".

"What we're seeing here is online race-baiters digging into this and using it as an excuse because they simply do not like people who have brown skin.

"There are a number of well-known racist accounts driving this."

Smyth said the local community will be "utterly disgusted" by the attacks.

However, Smyth also added that there exist serious issues with the use of HMOs.

"HMOs are symptomatic of the failure of the Stormont Executive to build enough social housing.

"There is a wider issue here. We need rent caps and we need social housing to be rapidly expanded."

The legal definition of a HMO is a property lived in by three or more people from three or more separate households who share facilities like a kitchen.

A house which is currently used as a single family home needs planning permission before it can be operated as a HMO.

All HMOs in Northern Ireland must also be licensed by their local council. Running an unlicensed HMO is a criminal offence.

Planning rules also restrict the number of HMOs, generally a maximum of 20% of houses in designated areas and 10% everywhere else.

HMOs have traditionally been used by students but have become a source of controversy across the UK as the government shuts asylum hotels and disperses people into HMOs.