Homeless service fears for future amid budget cuts

A voluntary organisation that works with homeless people in Londonderry fears budget cuts could force it to close.

In April's Stormont budget the Department for Communities was given £111m, or 15.5%, less in day-to-day spending than what it asked for.

It is the department responsible for addressing homelessness.

First Housing in Derry told BBC Radio Foyle that cut could put both services and vulnerable people at risk.

"My fear is our service would go," Liam McLaughlin of First Housing said on The North West Today programme.

"We have five support workers working for our service at the moment and 100 service users. What would those people do?"

He said there were hundreds more people on the organisation's waiting list for temporary accommodation.

Should homeless service budgets be slashed "a lot of these people would suffer in isolation and go unnoticed," he said.

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On Thursday, Homeless Connect, an umbrella group for homelessness services in Northern Ireland, warned the budget cuts will leave a shortfall of around £7.4m for addressing homelessness.

"This will not only have huge consequences for the people impacted, but it will put additional pressure on an already overburdened system and will cost the public purse more in both the shorter and longer term," chief executive Nicola McCrudden said.

She added: "In addition, the fund which supports people living in temporary accommodation and floating support in communities, is also facing a cut."

In April's budget, the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris allocated £861.1m to the department in the absence of an Executive.

Areas such as social security delivery and discretionary support grants are also facing cuts.