£6.7m allocated to tackle homelessness

The Housing Executive is to get £6.7m from Stormont's Department for Communities to prevent the closure of some homelessness services in Northern Ireland.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said funding for service providers would be confirmed until the end of the financial year in March.

He said there had been "too much uncertainty" with organisations previously working to a month-to-month funding model.

The charity Homeless Connect said it was a positive announcement after a period of “considerable anxiety for a lot of organisations in the sector".

Some of the money is coming from a budget reallocation exercise known as a monitoring round, which took place in October.

The announcement came as assembly members (MLAs) debated a cross-party motion calling on the minister to "ensure the homelessness sector receives sufficient funding to support people at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness".

Lyons also said that for the 2025-26 financial year and in the future, the Housing Executive would for the first time have its own funding allocation dedicated to homelessness prevention.

"We have to make the shift to the prevention of homelessness - that remains my ambition, and the proposals I have outlined show my commitment to that," added the minister.

"The voluntary and community sector deserves this clarity.

"Everyone needs a secure and safe place to call home.

"I share the ambition in this motion to make homelessness brief, rare and non-recurrent."

He said a "radical approach" was needed, but that the department's "short-term focus must continue to be supporting those currently in crisis".

“I hope to publish the Housing Supply Strategy imminently and, in doing so, announce new measures which will be creative in terms of both investment and innovative steps," he said.

Mark Bailie, from Homeless Connect, said they were a representative body for homelessness organisations, with about 40 members.

"This year so far, we have been operating on month-to-month funding," he told BBC News NI.

“In the three years before that, we have been operating on quarterly funding and you can imagine how challenging that is in terms of recruiting staff and retaining staff.

“It is no way to run vital, important services.”

The Commissioner for Children and Young People, Chris Quinn, said the funding package was coming "too late", as it had to be spent by the end of March.

He told BBC Radio Foyle’s North West Today programme that the rise in homelessness among young people was unprecedented and “profoundly disturbing” with about 5,000 children currently in temporary accommodation.

"Over 2,000 of those are babies – nought to four-years-old - and those statistics are mind-boggling," he said.

"The starting point for me is that children and young people and families have a right to an adequate standard of living and that, of course, means having a roof over your head, food and clothing."

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive became responsible for addressing homelessness in Northern Ireland in 1989.

In 2022, it published a strategy called "Ending Homelessness Together", aimed at tackling the issue.

“Homeless sector organisations have been working with great uncertainty this year, relying on month-to-month budgets," its chief executive Grainia Long said.

"It is a relief to be able to give them some level of financial certainty over the winter months," she added.

Ms Long also praised the change of approach on tackling homelessness, with more focus on prevention.