Welcome Organisation: Threatening graffiti appears near homeless charity

Graffiti threatening workmen who plan to carry out repairs on a local homeless charity has appeared in west Belfast. The graffiti was sprayed on a wall in the nearby Milford Close in the Divis area in the early hours of Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, the Welcome Organisation’s building was badly damaged when a suspected stolen car was rammed into the shutters of its building and set alight. The fire caused damage to both the inside and outside of the building. A man in his 40s has been arrested in connection with the attack, which police have said they are treating as arson. The Welcome Organisation is a Belfast-based charity which provides services for those experiencing homelessness. People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll condemned the graffiti and described those threatening workers as “bully boys”. “Deprived areas like West Belfast are at the sharpest end of the housing crisis and all of the problems that come with it,” the west Belfast representative said. “If the mindless perpetrators of the attacks on the Welcome Centre think we can intimidate, shoot, or threaten our way out of the social problems working class communities face then they are sorely mistaken.” Mr Carroll added that instead...