Northern Ireland homelessness: Pensioner crisis deepens amid suitable housing collapse

New figures for homelessness in Northern Ireland reveal a “moral catastrophe” as the number of pensioner households being placed in temporary accommodation has nearly doubled in a year.

The latest Homelessness Bulletin from the Department for Communities, released today and covering April to September 2025, confirms a deepening crisis where the system is failing to provide safe and accessible homes for older people.

The data shows the single largest driver of homelessness continues to be the lack of suitable accommodation, largely for those with health needs, often trapping older people in unsuitable homes and increasingly temporary accommodation.

Pensioner homelessness spikes by 90 per cent

An alarming trend is the number of pensioner households placed in temporary accommodation, which rose by 90 per cent to 489 households compared with the same period last year.

Justin Cartwright, national director of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Northern Ireland, called the figure a “moral catastrophe”, arguing the rise is directly linked to housing failing to keep pace with people’s changing needs.

The primary reason for homelessness continues to be that existing accommodation is not reasonable, accounting for 1,532 accepted households. Within this, unreasonableness due to physical health issues or disability is the largest driver, affecting 1,011 households.

Mr. Cartwright says this figure represents a hidden crisis where many older people are considered homeless because their home – for example a family house with stairs – is no longer physically suitable for conditions like mobility issues or COPD.

System backlogs and safety failures

The figures also highlighted a significant safeguarding failure and a growing backlog of people waiting for a permanent home. Homelessness acceptances due to domestic abuse rose by 13 per cent to 707 accepted households. This coincided with a 20 per cent increase in placements of single female households in temporary accommodation (to 1,093).

Overall, the number of legally homeless households on the social housing waiting list has reached an unprecedented 32,607, demonstrating a crisis defined by a lack of exits from the system in the form of suitable homes.

Private sector sales trap

Structural issues in private rented housing continue to push families into crisis. Property sale remains the dominant reason for homelessness resulting from loss of rented accommodation, accounting for two-thirds of all those cases (491 households).

“When nearly two-thirds of tenancy loss is driven by property sales, we should look at the reasons why some landlords are exiting the market and aim to address those,” Mr. Cartwright said.

A note of positive change

While the underlying crisis deepens, there has been a positive shift in how temporary housing is provided. The use of hotels and B&Bs for temporary accommodation fell by 22 per cent. This was offset by a 30 per cent increase in the use of more suitable private single lets (to 1,092), which Mr. Cartwright welcomes as offering a more self-contained environment.

CIH Northern Ireland reiterated its demand for urgent intervention from the NI Executive to address the root causes of the supply failure.

“The priority is clear. We cannot afford to leave one family in the growing queue for housing a day longer than necessary,” Mr. Cartwright said. “To help address this emergency, the £130 million capital funding from the autumn budget must be allocated to the social housing development programme.

“Furthermore, investment must be unlocked for Northern Ireland Water to resolve the chronic infrastructure issues preventing the completion of new homes. Finally, a statutory duty to prevent homelessness must be introduced, mandating cooperation across health, housing and social services to better protect people and make sustainable progress towards addressing and preventing homelessness in Northern Ireland.”