Homeless single father wants home for his children

Aaron said pressure of being homeless has had a significant effect on his two children.

Aaron Mullan is a single father-of-two and has been homeless since 2023.

"Very quickly life changed. I ended up a single father of two," he told BBC News NI.

Mr Mullan went to the Housing Executive and there was nowhere permanent for his family to go to. They were placed in a hotel in Antrim for five weeks.

The latest Department for Communities statistics show over 5,300 children are living in temporary accommodation in Northern Ireland.

Mr Mullan said: "We'd travel an hour and a half each way to school. It took us so far away from any support and cost £17 a day on public transport."

He added they had "very little facilities", with no fridge and nowhere to cook.

"My youngest was still drinking from a bottle. I would buy fresh milk but had nowhere to store it."

The new statistics show in November 2024, 5,378 children were living in temporary accommodation, 3,385 of these children were aged nine and under.

This represents an increase of 121% since January 2019, when just over 2,433 children were living in temporary accommodation.

The number of households living in temporary accommodation also more than doubled since January 2019.

In November 2024, 4,908 households were living in temporary accommodation, compared with 2,065 in 2019.

Between April and September, 8,250 households presented to the Housing Executive as homeless.

'Living in a blank space'

Mr Mullan and his children were eventually placed in temporary accommodation in Belfast in October 2023.

The family temporary accommodation service currently houses 27 adults and 42 children.

"I am very fortunate to be here," he said.

"Having my own cooking facilities felt like I'd won the lottery. I felt like I had a burst of life again."

However, he said the pressure of being homeless has had a significant effect on his two children.

"My daughter in the mornings doesn't want to get up out of bed," he said.

"She is feeling frustrated and she doesn't have that healthy way to get her feelings out.

"It's very confusing for them. You can't set up her room for her.

"If she wants unicorns you can't decorate. It feels like you're living in a blank space. You still feel like a guest."

'A home is a sense of belonging'

Mr Mullan said he is worried about where he will be placed next.

"You don't want to tell people you live in a hostel because there's that pre judgement, that stigma," he said.

"There is an underlying shame because in a way you have failed to give the children somewhere secure to live."

Mr Mullan and his family are among 58,000 people who are homeless in Northern Ireland.

With the sector under pressure – groups supporting those experiencing homelessness said their services need to be protected.

Bernadette Donaghy from Depaul said that having a home provided a sense of belonging and ownership.

"Families that come here to Depaul have been displaced from their families," she said.

"They have been socially isolated. They don't know the community, the don't know where they are being placed and this is where Depaul comes in."

'Homelessness was hard on my son'

Charlotte said homelessness was really hard on her son

Charlotte McKee and her son were helped by Depaul's family services. They had to move out of their rented accommodation because of issues with mould.

"The landlord raised the rent and didn't fix the issues. I couldn't afford to rent somewhere else so I declared myself homeless," she said.

Ms McKee and her son, who has additional needs, were given temporary accommodation at a family service run by Depaul, 18 miles away from her son's school.

"Being homeless definitely affected my son. The way it displays with my son is impulsive behaviour, erratic behaviour," she said.

"Homelessness was really hard on him."

Ms McKee travelled on public transport to and from her son's school to "keep some sort of continuity for him".

The thought of having to one uproot his home life and then two his school life. It made me feel like I was unfit," she said.

She and her son recently moved into permanent accommodation.

"I can really notice a difference in his behaviour has improved and he's much calmer," she added.

'Chaos' of temporary accommodation

Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick, an expert in socio-economic rights from Ulster University said inflation – the rate as which prices are rising – is among a "multitude" of reasons for an increase in the number of people who are homeless.

"We have a very squeezed private rented sector in Northern Ireland, we've got a long history where there's been very little social housing built over the last two decades and so there's literally a lack of homes," she said.

Dr Fitzpatrick said that the "chaos" of living in temporary accommodation will "reflect onto [a] child's life".

"There's so much stress involved with potentially moving from place to place, not having a stable home and a stable environment."

She added that a lack of stability is "so detrimental to mental health, and just to the child and parent's life, it's just so devastating".

'Not a huge surprise'

Nicola McCrudden, Chief Executive of Homeless Connect said: "Sadly, for many experiencing homelessness, having a place of their own is becoming an aspiration.

"Homelessness is solvable. If we are to turn the curve on homelessness, we need to increase housing supply and affordability – including tackling issues of poverty."

Deirdre Canavan from Depaul, said these "disheartening" figures are "not a huge surprise".

"There has been something of a 'perfect storm' created over the last few years which has pushed many more families into temporary accommodation," she added.