We exist to prevent and alleviate homelessness in Northern Ireland

We have been tackling homelessness since 1983.

Homeless Connect is a membership body for organisations working with people experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. Whether it’s through challenging policy or offering practical support, everything we do is driven by desire to see an end to homelessness. We support individuals, families and organisations – connecting people and services.

We work collaboratively to create a community of support, give a voice to the sector and deliver direct assistance to those in need.

More about us

What we do

Connecting Services
Our members provide a range of services, from supported temporary accommodation to floating support in the community, from street outreach to drop-in day centres. We connect members with each other and with statutory providers to better co-ordinate services for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Connecting People
To truly meet the needs of service users, we need to ensure that the voices of people with lived experiences are heard and listened to. Our ambition is to promote best practice through connecting the right people, including frontline staff, so that we learn, develop and improve together. In doing so, we can co-design better services that will make a real difference to people’s lives.

Membership

Homeless Connect’s membership is made up of a wide range of organisations working in the homelessness sector on the journey to end homelessness.

What brings us together is our commitment to ending homelessness.

Become a member

Influencing Policy

We provide a voice for the sector and actively engage our members in informing policy, legislation, and practice. This includes articulating the existing and future needs of people who are homeless and informing and influencing the development and implementation of strategy.

FareShare NI

FareShare NI is our regional food sharing service that aims to help people in food poverty by distributing surplus food, donated by the food industry. The food we redistribute is nutritious and good to eat. It reaches charities and community projects across the Northern Ireland including hostels, school breakfast clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, and community cafes.

Home Starter Pack

Home Starter Packs help to ensure a good start, or restart, after some time without a permanent home. By providing packs of essential household goods to those moving into a new tenancy, we can go some way to making a house feel like a home, and help people keep their tenancy going – helping people on their journey.

Lived Experience

At Homeless Connect we believe in the importance of including people with lived experience of homelessness in shaping strategy and bringing about positive change to services. People with lived experience of homelessness have unique insights into what works to prevent and reduce homelessness. We want to make sure that voice is heard.

Northern Ireland Frontline Network

Homeless Connect is partnering with the Frontline Network to deliver the Northern Ireland Frontline Network. The network is aimed at people working or volunteering on the frontline of the homelessness sector, so that their views are heard and they are supported to deal with the challenges that they are facing.

Our Impact

Through our work we’ve been able to help sustain 94% of tenancies for over 6 months, created a safe space for people with Lived Experience through our Echoes of Home group, redistributed 656 tonnes of food and advocated for policy on behalf of our members. Read more in our Impact Report

Give us feedback

We value hearing from our members, partners and the people who use our services. If you have feedback, a compliment or a complaint, we want to know. Find out how to get in touch on our feedback and complaints page.