By Julie Waters
PEOPLE across North Down are being ‘pushed to breaking point’ as they struggle to survive against a backdrop of poverty, the cost of living crisis, housing insecurity as well as mental and physical health difficulties.
That was the message from North Down MLA Connie Egan who led a debate at the Assembly highlighting the hidden poverty in her constituency often dubbed the ‘Gold Coast’.
The Alliance politician brought forward the adjournment debate on poverty rates in her constituency to urge the Department for Communities to work with Ards and North Down Council and community organisations to help alleviate poverty.
She highlighted two separate instances of desperate local people needing support saying one of her constituents suffered ‘extreme malnutrition’ after she chose to feed her children instead of ‘filling her own plate’.
Ms Egan said many of the people she represented were ‘struggling with the cost of surviving’ with one mother unable to send her children to school as she could not afford the electricity to wash their uniforms and was ‘rationing washing powder’.
During the debate, Ms Egan also highlighted the growing number of drug related deaths, the number of people who had taken their own lives and the ‘presence of paramilitaries’ that exploit poverty in North Down.
She said there were ‘many heartbreaking stories’ from across North Down and it was ‘local community organisations who are always stepping in to address this level of need, connecting those who need support to foodbanks, social supermarkets or to provide advice or support’.
She said that in 2023/24, Bangor Foodhub and Community Support distributed over 154,760 meals to those in need of support. Kilcooley Women’s Centre also supported 40 families per week in 2023/24 through its Social Supermarket.
Ms Egan said that local community organisations are at the ‘forefront of alleviating poverty in our community, through practical measures, advice and support’ but often find themselves ‘struggling and competing for funding’.
She said: “These organisations deserve the full support of the Department for Communities through a measurable, fit-for-purpose Anti-Poverty Strategy and a fully funded action plan with the support of all Executive departments.”
She stressed that the ‘repeated message of high levels of wealth and income in North Down continue to overshadow the struggle and deprivation of many’.
Ms Egan said the fact that her constituency had been dubbed the ‘Gold Coast has contributed to the stigma making those who are struggling feel a lot of shame that their finances or living costs aren’t more manageable’.
Acknowledging there was a ‘broad spectrum of wealth and a number of high earners in North Down’, Ms Egan said this was ‘not the case for everyone’ and a local community worker had highlighted the number of struggling working families in the borough.
North Down MLA and Stormont Minister Andrew Muir, thanked the borough’s community organisations for the work they are doing on the ground, and highlighted the rising cost of homes across the constituency, putting home ownership out of reach for many people, and making rent increasingly unaffordable.
Said Mr Muir: “In North Down, we have our share of deprivation and far too many adults and children live in poverty.”
