Coronavirus: Big increase in demand for emergency housing
- Published
'I've cried myself to sleep in hostels'
The number of people seeking emergency accommodation soared in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Housing Executive reported a 150% increase in demand.
From April to December 2020 it provided temporary accommodation 7,289 times, compared with 2,923 during the same period in 2019.
The agency said lockdowns put a strain on family relationships, particularly on those with young people who have complex needs.
Extra funding from the Department of Communities saw homeless services remain open throughout the pandemic.
However, the Housing Executive said a hostel should not represent a long-term plan for someone experiencing homelessness.
'Cried myself to sleep'
William Lavery has been without a home for five years. He told he told BBC News NI it badly affected his mental health.
William Lavery said long term homelessness has impacted severely on his mental health
"I've cried myself to sleep many a night in hostels wondering when is it going to end, when am I going to finally have somewhere to settle down so I can happy?" he said.
"It got so tough at some stages that I just didn't want to be living anymore.
"Sleeping on the streets and then actually going to a hostel and shivering in my bed and just thinking: 'What's the point?'
"Those thoughts always come into your head when you're living in a hostel. You don't really have that best of a support network."
Mr Lavery is among the 30,000 people living in housing stress across Northern Ireland.
One of the challenges facing the Housing Executive is to make sure that he and others like him are placed in permanent accommodation with the right support so that they do not end up back on the streets.
New accommodation is being constructed, but there are still shortages across NI
Its chief executive Grainia Long said social housing is the key to unlocking the problem.
"We are looking with urgency now at the stock of homes that are available to us," she said.
"The supply of social housing is critical, so we are looking at a range of measures with every lever we possibly can to grow social housing stock, particularly focused on single people."
The Housing Executive's Grainia Long said the supply of social housing is critical
Ms Long said her organisation had seen a growth in the number of single people with "very complex needs".
"That is where we really need to focus on in the future," she added.
"I wouldn't want to understate the scale of the challenge ahead. We have a huge homeless population that has had an extremely difficult year and they will have mental ill-health.
"They will have a whole range of complex issues, some of which we don't even know the full scale of.
"We're facing a difficult period, but most importantly we are focused on the needs of the people that are homeless and their needs and that is the major priority."
Last month, the Department for Communities announced a budget of £162m for new social housing across Northern Ireland.
This increase in funding has been widely welcomed but the scale of the task and the impact it will have on thousands of people's lives remains huge.
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- Published21 December 2019
