Homelessness up by 1/3 in NI

Homelessness here has risen by a third in the past five years according to a new report from the Northern Ireland Audit Office.

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Author: Damien EdgarPublished 21st Nov 2017

Describing the findings of the report, head of the Audit Office Kieran Donnelly said the strategies designed to reduce homelsseness had had "limited success".

Nearly 12,000 Northern Ireland households were accepted last year presenting as homeless. This is in contrast to the latest available figure (from a street count in 2015) indicating an average of six people sleep rough each night in Belfast.

The majority of people recorded in official homelessness statistics are living:

  • with friends or relatives;
  • in temporary accommodation; or
  • in properties which may be of an acceptable standard but are not suitable for their needs.

Mr Donnelly said: “Contrary to popular belief homelessness is not restricted to people whosleep rough, it encompasses a much wider range of individuals in a variety of circumstances.”

The report also showed the number of homeless households here was disproportionately high comapred to the rest of the UK.

Mr Donnelly said the Housing Executive policy of offering social homes to those presenting as homeless may be part of the problem.

He claimed the policy might actually be leading to people who want rather than need to move home, declaring themselves homeless.

“The practice of allocating a high proportion of available social homes to those declared under the wide category of statutory homeless carries risks. It can create an incentive for households who desire, rather than need to move from one house to another, to declare themselves statutory homeless.”

“The Housing Selection Scheme has been operating since 2000, with few changes, and it is widely accepted that the system could be open to abuse. A fundamental review of social housing allocations policy is long overdue and proposals are currently out for public consultation”.

The total cost to the public purse over the last five years has been around £300m.

Expenditure in 2016-17 was £62 million, with more than 70 per cent - £44 million - spent on temporary accommodation services (including Housing Benefit). There are wider unquantified public sector costs with increased use of the health service and repeat interaction with the criminal justice system.

Mr Donnelly added: “There is no doubt that the social costs of homelessness are significant but would be far greater without this public expenditure.”

He said a joined up approach between the Housing Executive, health sector and other organisations is needed to effectively tackle the issue. He recommended: “That the framework for addressing homelessness should be developed in an integrated way with an emphasis on outcomes rather than existing departmental structures”