Debate contribution: Housing (Amendment) Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Mrs Ciara Ferguson on .
- MLA
- Mrs Ciara Ferguson
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 21 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Housing (Amendment) Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5743238
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I welcome the opportunity to speak at the Second Stage of the Housing (Amendment) Bill. I start by thanking my Sinn Féin colleague Colm Gildernew for progressing this legislative change. As was highlighted at last year's homeless conference, it is about seeing the person and seeing the family. In our offices, each and every one of us sees families who are threatened with homelessness — many of us on a daily basis. Let us put ourselves in their shoes. They are in crisis, they are in desperation and they just cannot see what sort of future they can have in front of them. It is incredibly important that we recognise, as many Members have, that we have over 92,000 people on our social housing waiting list, 70% of whom have full applicant status. As the Minister and many Members have mentioned, that is a 115% increase over the past 10 years. That equates to one in 20 people across the North, and the figures are increasing across 10 of our 11 council areas. We have to start doing more. No matter what scale or size it is, any action is better than none to support our most vulnerable people. Obviously, the principle of the Bill is to extend the period in which a person who is at risk of homelessness can access support for the purposes of preventing homelessness. It is a welcome and sensible proposal. Most of the families whom I deal with in my office are sitting with all their belongings in boxes on the morning of the final day of their 28 days, waiting for a phone call from the Housing Executive to hear where it may be able to place them. Those are families whom I deal with in Derry. They get a phone call to say, "You have to pack up, take whatever you can and head to Ballymena or Belfast". They do not know where their kids are going to go. It is crisis. That happens in the majority of cases that I deal with in Derry, which has the second-highest level of need. It is a crisis situation. Vulnerable families in crisis are crying on the final day about where they are going to go. We constantly have to intervene. We are constantly begging the Housing Executive to try to keep those families together. We have to see the person and the family. We need to do everything that we can. As Members well know, Homeless Connect is an amazing organisation that leads and supports a range of our homeless support organisations that are at the forefront and on the ground representing the homeless sector. Others — the likes of the Simon Community, which does an amazing job in my own city — have welcomed the intention of the Bill. The current 28-day period does not provide sufficient time for any meaningful activity and is equally difficult to align with current private tenancy notices.
As you say, there are a lot of cases related to private tenancies. I have heard from families whose private landlords have said, "Right, I will give you another month". An extra month there is no good, in that the Housing Executive will not even consider them until the 28-day rule kicks in, so they are left with us trying to support them as best we can. That difference is just ridiculous. That is important in the context of the fact that presentations categorised as being due to the loss of private rented accommodation are on the rise. Earlier intervention is one measure in trying to assist people during one of the most difficult things that a person could ever experience, and it can enable us to avoid crisis responses, insofar as it is possible to do so. I would like to ask the Minister a question, because many of his colleagues have mentioned a £2·5 million cost. I know that a lot of the homeless organisations have asked the same question. An assessment of cost should also consider potential savings. Any assessment should consider both the implementation cost and the anticipated savings arising from successful prevention activity. I would like a balanced approach. You might be able to answer this question: has a detailed assessment been done yet?
710 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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