CIH Northern Ireland welcomes the new statistics linked to the Northern Ireland Homelessness Bulletin

Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Northern Ireland welcomes today’s publication of the Department for Communities’ Northern Ireland Homelessness Bulletin (October 2025 – March 2026).

To us, it’s clear that ongoing delays in finalising the Northern Ireland budget risk choking off vital progress in reforming emergency housing, as new figures show a sharp winter surge in people trapped in temporary accommodation.

The official statistics do reveal a strategic success for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), which has secured a dramatic 446 per cent increase in the use of managed leased properties (rising from 169 to 923 placements year-on-year). This shift has reduced the reliance on commercial hotels and B&Bs by nine per cent, despite intense pressure on the system.

However, we warn that these gains are being pushed to the brink by a funding vacuum. Total temporary accommodation placements over the winter period surged by 18 per cent to 6,714 households. The number of pensioner households in emergency housing skyrocketed by 58 per cent (from 354 to 558).

Commenting on the publication, Justin Cartwright, national director of CIH Northern Ireland, said:

“What we are seeing is a determined, behind-the-scenes effort by the Housing Executive and homelessness service providers to repair the broken foundations of our housing system. Moving people out of unpredictable hotel rooms and into secure, managed homes represents important progress.

“But we cannot successfully rebuild these foundations when funding is handed out on a short-term, reactive basis. With an 18 per cent spike in households entering temporary accommodation – including a deeply concerning 58 per cent rise in older people – these hard-won gains are under direct threat. Stormont must urgently finalise a multi-year budget that invests heavily in long-term prevention, rather than just managing the consequences of a shortage of homes.”

The bulletin also shows a shifting landscape in the private rented sector. Homelessness presentations stemming from landlords selling their properties fell by 10 per cent (from 603 down to 540 households), suggesting that the recent wave of landlord exits may be stabilising.

Instead, structural failures within Northern Ireland’s wider housing stock are driving the crisis. Unsuitable accommodation due to physical health and disability remains the overwhelming driver of homelessness, accounting for nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of all presentations where a current property is deemed unreasonable.

Statutory homelessness acceptances remained high and stable, with over 5,000 households accepted as having full housing duty during the six-month period, adding to an already severe social housing backlog.

Justin Cartwright added:

“The stabilisation in private landlord sales gives the Executive a brief window of opportunity, but the underlying issue is that our current stock of homes is failing an ageing population. When a home doesn’t accommodate a person's physical health or disability, it actively undermines their independent living, ultimately forcing them into the emergency system.

“Relying on temporary fixes to manage complex health needs is short-sighted and expensive. True prevention means locking down long-term, ring-fenced funding for the Supporting People programme and committing the capital necessary to build permanent, accessible social homes. We need political certainty from the Executive now to ensure everyone has a solid foundation to build their life upon.”