Accommodating Northern Ireland’s homeless Lengthy waiting list for social housing is branded ‘inhumane’

MLA’S anger at ‘shocking’ amount of people left living in hostels and B&BS

LENGTHY waiting times of over five years for social housing have been slammed as “inhumane”.

South Down SDLP MLA Colin Mcgrath hit out after it emerged that some people applying for Housing Executive properties spent more than a year in temporary accommodation.

In one case, a 595-day stay was recorded in a Belfast hostel, according to the data, while in another in Londonderry someone waited over five years for a permanent Executive residence.

The longest maximum stay in a hotel or B&B was 368 days in the Derry City and Strabane council area in 2016/17, whereas someone spent a record-breaking 1,919 days in a hostel in that same council area in 2015/16.

Housing Executive statistics over a five-year period revealed that the average placement in a hostel was 234 days in 2017/18, dropping to 220 days in 2018/19, before rising slightly to 224 days in 2019/20.

Meanwhile, the average placement in a hotel or B&B was 48 days in 2017/18, falling to 18 days in 2018/19, and then doubling to hit 36 days in 2019/20.

The figures emerged after Mr Mcgrath asked Communities Minister Caral Ni Chuilin to confirm the longest time a Housing Executive applicant has spent in a hotel, a bed and breakfast and a hostel in each of the last five years.

He said the results were “extremely shocking”.

“The figures show a significant housing problem in Northern Ireland, which must be addressed,” Mr Mcgrath said.

“It’s a basic and fundamental right for people to have a roof over their head.

“Having these lengthy stays in hotels and hostels is unfair and at times it is bordering on inhumane to leave people in such accommodation for such protracted periods of time.

“We need a complete uplift in the number of new builds that we’re delivering each year.”

In its response, the Housing Executive said it was “unable to provide a breakdown of placements by broad rental market area” as initially requested by Mr Mcgrath.

Instead, “local council area data” was provided “on the maximum time a placement has remained in temporary accommodation across the years 2015/16 to 2019/20 and broken down into non-standard accommodation (hotel/b&b) and hostel accommodation”.

The reply added: “It should be noted that in making placements the Housing Executive will seek to utilise available spaces within hostel accommodation or single lets (a self-contained property like a house or flat, sourced via the private rented sector, where the household are sole occupants).

“Only when there is no viable alternative will the Housing Executive seek to place a household in B&B or hotel accommodation in order to fulfil the statutory duty placed up on it by the Housing (NI) Order 1988 (as amended).

“It is intended that use of such non-standard accommodation is for as short a duration as possible and attempts are made to find more suitable accommodation.”

The Housing Executive said it records length of stay within B&b/hotel accommodation within the category of ‘non-standard’ accommodation.

There’s no specific breakdown on B&BS and hotels.

‘It’s a fundamental and basic right for people to have a roof over their head’