THE redevelopment in the Village area is to replace old housing stock.
But some are sad to see the homes they have lived in most of their lives vanish. And Bob Stoker, a life-long resident of the Village, and UUP councillor for Balmoral, said the case would undermine the appetite for regeneration across Ulster.
He said: “Exactly the same thing will happen in the next phase of regeneration; in the New Lodge area. I know people there have been watching this case very carefully.”
He said many residents in that area could be in negative equity.
Negative equity refers to a situation where the value of a home falls below the value of the outstanding mortgage repayments which still have to be made on it.
Anyone in that position would be worried by the court judgments, he said, fearing they could lose out too.
Billy Dickson, 66, had been a resident of the Village for more than 40 years. He had to move out in early 2012 because his house in Broadway Parade, which he had lived in since 1969, is part of the redevelopment.
He branded the court decision “a tremendous injustice”, adding: “I didn’t want to leave. It’s blocked up, and is one of the last houses to be demolished. We had a lovely community.
“I’m in a good enough house. (But) for 40 years we knew the neighbours.”
Alan Bush, 56, still lives in the same house in which he was born on March 19, 1956.
At the time his brother had carved his initials and the date into a brick on one of the nearby homes. He has retrieved the brick before demolition, so he can treasure it even after the house itself is gone.
“It’s going to be hard, but they say it’s progress. There’s nothing we can do about it now,” he said.
The DSD, the department responsible for housing, said: “Areas like the Village have experienced population decline, empty homes and blight, and investment is key to sustaining the future of these communities, reshaping them and making them a place where people want to live with homes that are comfortable and fit for the future.”