Housing Executive Chief Executive, Grainia Long
The Housing Executive has welcomed approval from the Minister for Communities for its ambitious new programme to purchase homes for temporary accommodation.
Developed by the Housing Executive, the initiative will enable the organisation to purchase 600 homes, over a three year period, to use as temporary accommodation.
Purchased with funds from the organisation’s Landlord Rental Income Reserve, the properties will be used in the short and medium term.
Housing Executive Chief Executive, Grainia Long said:
“We have been open and transparent about the unprecedented demand for temporary accommodation.
“The number of placements in temporary accommodation reached 11,368 in 2023/24, a 151% increase from 4,527 in 2020.
“We have prioritised high quality temporary accommodation.
“As a result, the financial cost of temporary accommodation has increased rapidly in recent years not only as a result of increased demand but also due to supply of suitable accommodation.
“We are overly dependent on leasing properties from private landlords, which are sometimes withdrawn at short notice, and are usually in very short supply.
“In October 2023 we established an internal task and finish group to explore future options for temporary accommodation across Northern Ireland with a focus on reducing the use of existing non-standard accommodation and increasing the use of single-let private rented accommodation.
“We have succeeded in controlling costs, but too often are dependent on an unpredictable private rental market.
“We believe that purchasing properties will allow us to increase the provision of cost-effective, own front door temporary accommodation for those in need.”
There are currently 29,394 households who are homeless on the social housing waiting list.
Costs for temporary accommodation in 2023/24 were approximately £27m with a further increase of £9m to approximately £36m expected in 2024/25.
There has been an growing reliance on the use of more expensive external accommodation – such as hotels and B&Bs - due to lack of availability of other suitable forms of accommodation.
Work on this initiative will commence with property identification planning through strategic needs assessments.