Homeless Connect warmly welcomes amendments tabled by the Minister for Justice to the Justice Bill which, if passed, will repeal sections of the Vagrancy Act 1824 and the Vagrancy Act (Ireland) 1847 that criminalise rough sleeping and simple begging. As the representative body for the homelessness sector in Northern Ireland, we urge all MLAs to back these amendments when they are debated on Tuesday 2 June.

Commenting on the amendments, Dr Leeanne O’Hara, Policy and Public Affairs’ Officer at Homeless Connect, said:

“Homeless Connect fully supports the amendments tabled by the Justice Minister to repeal the sections of the Vagrancy Acts that criminalise rough sleeping and simple begging. We commend the Minister’s leadership in bringing these important changes forward.

We urge MLAs from across the Assembly to support these amendments. No one should be criminalised simply for experiencing homelessness.

As the representative body for the homelessness sector, we believe that criminal sanctions are an ineffective response to what is fundamentally a social issue. Criminalising poverty does not address the root causes that lead people to beg or sleep rough. A properly funded, trauma-informed, multi-agency approach offers a far more effective path to positive outcomes than punitive measures.

While repealing the Vagrancy Acts will not resolve the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis this society is experiencing, it represents an important step towards a more compassionate, evidence-based approach to chronic homelessness—one that better reflects the realities of why people find themselves sleeping on the streets.”