Belfast City Council warned of threats to HMOs a year before racist attacks

Belfast City Council was warned of threats to those living in so-called “House in Multiple Occupation” (HMO) properties a year before the recent racist attacks, but kept its public register of HMOs online.

The council’s list of HMOs has been linked by police to the anti-immigrant attacks.

It is known that anti-immigration activists were circulating a so-called hit list of addresses from the HMO register for months.

Belfast City Council is required by legislation to maintain the public register of HMOs on behalf of all councils in Northern Ireland.

But officials in the Council and the Department of Communities were warned of threats to HMO properties since at least June 2025, according to internal correspondence obtained by The Detail.

“We’ve been aware of threats against HMO properties housing members of the migrant community and have received requests to suspend registers in a number of council areas / towns," a council official wrote on 12 June 2025.

"As such I have taken the decision to temporarily suspend the registers until the current civil unrest stabilises," they added.

The correspondence states that threats were made against housing providers during the Ballymena riots, including the Mears company which provides accommodation to asylum seekers in Northern Ireland.

It also showed that 49 asylum seekers were forced out of their homes and had to be relocated.

An official wrote that they had "been advised that there is an ‘active threat’ to seven properties where asylum seekers are being accommodated in the area."

Department officials also warned of longer term impact of the threats, including that landlords would stop renting to certain nationalities to prevent their properties being attacked.

One official wrote of "fears that some providers may now seek to ‘evict’ or prevent access by certain groups on safety grounds."

Due to the threats Belfast City Council took the register offline for at least six weeks last year, but it went back online in August, 2025.

Following a wave of attacks on HMOs and other properties in Belfast last week, the register has again been taken offline.

Geraldine Hanna, the Commissioner for Victims of Crime, said it was “irresponsible” of Belfast City Council to have kept the register online.

“Given that Houses of Multiple Occupancy were likely targets for violence, it was irresponsible to leave this list published online”, she said.

“However, we must be absolutely clear: the ultimate responsibility and blame for these racist attacks lies firmly with the perpetrators who chose to carry out this abhorrent violence.”

HMOs

HMOs are properties that house three or more people from more than different households, and have drawn negative attention from the far-right and anti-immigration campaigners.

There were 3,582 HMOs across Northern Ireland as of November last year, according to the Department for Communities. Of these 250 - around 7% - are used to provide accommodation for asylum seekers and refugees.

In March, there were a number of attacks on homes in East Belfast. Windows were broken and “No HMOs” graffiti was daubed on the outside of the houses.

Daniel Holder of the Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ) said anti-immigration activists have been increasingly targeting HMOs.

"The monitoring work we have been involved in has identified a particular pattern of far right organising around opposition to 'HMOs'.

"It appeared in some instances 'HMO' was simply being used as a euphemism for housing with migrants, perhaps as it was too obviously racist to simply target or oppose migrants living in houses."

“The Councils who have put the list of HMOs online have done so in this context, they should explain this decision and the legal basis for doing so," he added.

In a statement Belfast City Council said they are “responsible for administering the NI HMO licensing scheme, on behalf of all NI councils, and is required by legislation to maintain a public register of HMO properties.

“After becoming aware of HMO properties being targeted in recent days, we took the decision to temporarily remove the register from our website.

“The safety and wellbeing of everyone who calls Belfast home is paramount, and there is no place in our city for violence, racism or hate.”

However, Mr Holder of CAJ said while the council must maintain a HMO register, there is no obligation to put it online.

“Rather Councils have to make HMO entries available at their HQs, and have discretion as to how else it is made available - and access is only for persons with a particular interest in the HMO”, he said.

"In addition, Councils have an express duty to ‘exclude from its [HMO] register any information’ which the Council considers is likely to jeopardise ‘the safety or welfare of any person.’”