The head of a homeless charity has pleaded for political leaders to come together to address Northern Ireland’s housing crisis.
Simon Community chief executive Jim Dennison described the current situation as the worst in the history of the charity.
He said another 1,000 people, including families, are deemed legally homeless every month, with almost 44,500 currently on the social housing waiting list, many of whom are classed as in acute housing need.
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This Christmas there are 4,000 children in emergency accommodation, as well as an increase in those sleeping rough in towns and cities across Northern Ireland.
“I’m with Simon Community nearly nine years, we’re an organisation that has been around just over 50 years and we’ve never seen it as bad as it is now,” he told the PA news agency..
“We’re the largest homeless charity in Northern Ireland, and our services are absolutely stretched, demand is far outstripping supply.
“We’re not in a homelessness crisis, we’re heading rapidly towards an absolute disaster.”
Mr Dennison attributed the situation to a myriad of issues, including poverty, the cost of living, rents becoming unaffordable, families becoming unable to sustain their mortgages, as well as family breakdowns escalating, domestic violence, mental health and addiction issues.
“It is this perfect storm, all of these things are happening to increase the problem yet we are not providing as a society all the necessary safety nets to catch those individuals – that’s why the problem is escalating,” he said.
“Public policy here is doing the same things over and over again here expecting different results, it’s absolute insanity.”
“This has been an issue that has been building in Northern Ireland for 25 years, in 20 years the homelessness problem has been risen by 70%.
“We are not dealing with it, successive governments, successive housing policies have not grasped this issue. We are not building enough houses.”
Mr Dennison said with 44,500 on the waiting list for a house, and ever increasing, the things that we can do are not enough, and with no functioning government at Stormont new plans cannot be signed off.
In terms of rough sleepers, Mr Dennison said when five individuals died on the streets over the Christmas period in 2018 there was an public outcry, he said recently there has been 16 deaths on the streets of Belfast, and very little said about it.
Belfast man Eddie Booth, 58, experienced homelessness in 2000 following a family breakdown. He described the experience of sleeping rough as “total desolation of the soul”.
“You’re just lost, you don’t know what to do or where to go, you learn not to sleep at night because it’s so cold, you keep moving so you’re always tired,” he said.
“You go into the shadows and hide because you feel ashamed, people often go to other towns where they won’t be recognised, that’s why the true extent homelessness is not seen.”
Mr Booth managed to rescue himself by getting night shifts in a storehouse and was able to slowly save money to rent somewhere to live, which he moved into on December 23.
“It’s not easy to get yourself out of the hole, every story is different and everyone’s circumstances are different,” he said.
“The cost-of-living crisis is putting a lot of people to the wall, cost of things is going up and up, money coming in is going down, I fear there is going to be a homelessness epidemic.”
Mr Dennison said his message to Northern Ireland’s political leaders is to get the Assembly up and running again, but to do things better.
“Get back in and get the Assembly up and running, but don’t do the same things you did before, don’t do siloed departments, don’t under invest in vital services that matter to people, take this seriously,” he said.
“They need to go back in and recognise the problem and think of new and different creative ways of tackling it.
“All the parties agree on the size and scale of the problem, and that something needs to be done. Whether that manifests itself into anything real in the new year, I don’t know.
“My hope is that it will, that that interest and commitment from the parties translates into something better for people who have nothing.
“Through coronavirus there was a multi-agency working group set up, and the things that we got done in the space of a year would have taken four or five years, we can work together to make a real difference, it isn’t all about money.
“Housing Executive statistics last year showed the need for homelessness and housing support services are going to rise, they believe in the next two to three years, by 20%, if you think of a system that’s already creaking, it’s scary, it’s more than a crisis.”
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