Doorways of Belfast

Doorways of Belfast is a photographic exhibition by the Westcourt Camera Club for Homelessness Awareness Week 2019.

Inspired by the line ‘A Doorway’s My Bed’ from the poem ‘Me, Myself & I’ written by a young homeless person Jamie Smith, the images were recorded in collaboration with a local outreach service to picture places where people are sleeping on the street in Belfast.

These photographs shine a light on rough sleepers but don’t tell the full story of homelessness here:

In 2018/2019 18,202 households presented to the NI Housing Executive as homeless - Single Males (32%) and Families (32%) were the biggest presenters.

The total number of applicants on the waiting list for social housing at 31st March 2019 was 37,859 (Dept. for Communities NI Housing Statistics 2018/19)

Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘everyone has the right to adequate housing’ - Doorways of Belfast is a series of 25 images highlighting issues of homelessness, social exclusion and poverty where this Right is far from reality.

Throughout Homelessness Awareness Week, the exhibition was displayed alongside a series of images by Bradford-based documentary photographer John Bolloten. John is particularly interested in documenting people that exist on the margins of society and his work opens a window into Bradford’s gritty underbelly of drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness and destitution www.johnbolloten.co.uk