Debate contribution: Homelessness: South Down

Debate contribution by Mr Andy Allen MBE on 22 October 2024.

MLA

Mr Andy Allen MBE

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

22 October 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Homelessness: South Down

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4608643

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I join colleagues in thanking the Member opposite for securing this important Adjournment debate. Those who may be tuning in would be forgiven for mistaking which constituency we are talking about. Obviously, today, we are talking about South Down, but the statistics show that the impact of homelessness and the lack of social housing and housing provision on individuals is not unique to South Down; it is reflected across every one of our constituencies. I welcome the Minister back from his recent trip to the US and look forward to hearing his comments on the work that he and his Department are doing to tackle this important issue. I have had the immense honour of representing East Belfast for nine years. Each year, when the House has been sitting, we have talked about housing, homelessness, poverty and the impacts that those different issues have on our constituents and many of the people who come to our offices. Many of us can talk about the horror stories and the situations that constituents are highlighting: for example, living out of black bin bags; living out of suitcases; being moved right across Northern Ireland; or going to the Housing Executive only to be told that the temporary accommodation being provided is tens of miles away from their communities, their support networks and where they grew up. The reality is that, in many cases, homelessness leads to people and their children being lifted from the communities that they have known and, as I said, from their support networks and the areas that they know and are accustomed to. It results in many instances of children being unable to attend school. I have seen that in my office. We have moved from a system of prevention and intervention to a system of managing expectations. That is the fundamental reality of what we have, because demand is far outstripping supply. We and, indeed, many of those on the front line — they have been commended, and I echo those comments — in the Housing Executive and in the plethora of organisations at the coalface are managing the expectations of constituents and of those who, in desperation, are reaching out to them for help and support. I will come back to the important point that the reality is that demand is far outstripping supply. We look at the statistics, and, as Members said, these are ordinary people. They are people right across all our communities. We are all fortunate: each one of us here this evening will go home to a warm home. How many of our constituents can say that? Each one of us will go home to a roof over our head. How many of our constituents can say that? Who knows? Any one of us could be at risk of homelessness. That is why it is important to get this right and do all that we can and collectively work together. We can stand and pontificate, point fingers and blame, but I know, as, I am sure, does every Member, that that it is not what our constituents want. They want us to work together, work with the housing associations, other providers and interested parties and work with cross-departmental colleagues to deliver change. We need to lay the foundations of change. It was just last week, as has been commented on, that we declared, again, a housing emergency. Again, we referred to having a housing crisis, but we seem not to be able to get a grip of it. We need to tackle it head-on. We need to look at the broad range of issues and the broad range of solutions. We need to look at how we can tackle issues in areas such as water and waste water infrastructure. There are instances where we are going forward with developments, but the infrastructure is not there to deliver them. We know that we have a problem. We can continue talking about it or we can collectively put our shoulder to the wheel and deliver for the over 47,000 households on the waiting lists. I will put that in context: those over 47,000 households would fill our national football stadium more than twice over. Indeed, a point that I highlighted last week is that I do not even believe that that is the true extent of our housing crisis. Fundamentally, we need to deliver. We need to deliver change. We have the housing supply strategy. I am prepared to put my shoulder to the wheel with the Minister. My colleagues are prepared to do the same. We need to do all that we can to deliver for those who need us to do so.

779 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:28 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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