Leading homelessness charity calls for sustained funding to end the crisis locally on World Homeless Day

Oct 10, 2024

NI Homelessness Conference

Leading homelessness charity calls for sustained funding to end the crisis locally on World Homeless Day

Over 150 delegates are meeting at Riddell Hall in south Belfast today to discuss the deepening homelessness crisis and to examine practices and approaches that are working well in other countries. The Northern Ireland homelessness conference is organised by the sector’s representative body, Homeless Connect. Its Chief Executive Nicola McCrudden has called for “concerted effort” and sustained funding” to tackle the crisis head on.

Ms McCrudden said: “Northern Ireland is in the midst of a homelessness crisis, crossing the grim milestone of seeing over 30,000 households registered as homeless on the social housing waiting list. The number of people living in temporary accommodation has reached unprecedented levels, including over 5000 children with no place to call home.”

Homeless Connect and its members have been warning about an escalation of homelessness in Northern Ireland for some time.

Commenting on this, Ms McCrudden said:

“Social housing has not been given as much focus as other areas of public policy and for far too long people assumed we were building enough homes. It is now crystal clear that we have not been building enough homes. I am pleased to see that housing and homelessness will now be a priority for the Programme for Government and this should be viewed as a fresh start.

We need to think and act differently if we are to deal with the immediate crisis of temporary accommodation supply and do more to stop people from losing their homes. We need to be bold and innovative. We need to come up with workable solutions both short and longer term and above all else, make sure there is sustained and committed funding. This is a societal problem which can be solved, but we need concerted effort across sectors and government departments to fix it.”

“We are grateful to our headline sponsor, the Department for Communities, as well as our joint sponsors Ark Housing, Choice Housing, the St-Martin-in-the-Fields Frontline Network and the Public Health Agency for their support in making this conference possible.”

Professor Paddy Gray is leading a session focussed on housing solutions which includes speakers talking about approaches in the Republic of Ireland and Scotland.

Leading housing expert Professor Gray said: “Northern Ireland has a particular set of problems, while not unique to here, needs a holistic approach. I firmly believe that a time bound housing commission focussing on the whole system is the way forward. The housing system here is broken and needs fixed right from the core. There is an urgent need for a strategic reset in housing policy given the severe housing deficit we are experiencing.”

The day involves a range of plenary sessions and workshops focused on providing expert insights in to how this society can best respond to homelessness. Participants are coming from the public, voluntary and statutory sectors as well as including several participants with lived experience of homelessness.

To join or support Homeless Connect on their journey to end homelessness in Northern Ireland visit www.homelessconnect.org or follow Homeless Connect on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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