Rathlin Island now has 10 new social homes, its first housing development in over a decade, intended to help sustain a community of about 150. Ruari Morgan moved into one two weeks ago after a generator fire left him without electricity, heating or hot water for 2½ years.
Morgan had been on the housing waiting list for four years. The Church Bay homes followed a 2016 needs assessment by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Rural Housing Association and Rathlin Development Community Association. Allocations combined the Housing Executive’s points system with a local policy that includes a connection to the island.
Rathlin Development Community Association chair Marina McMullan said affordable housing could help families stay for work and school, and allow some people who left for lack of housing to return. Building the homes required workers and materials to be brought to Rathlin, much of it by barge.
