Northern Ireland’s homelessness crisis is a state of emergency

On the other hand, the number of new households officially accepted as homeless actually fell by 12% compared with the same quarter last year. If fewer people are entering crisis, why is the overall queue getting longer? The answer is simple – the system’s exits are blocked.

The true measure of this emergency is the collapse in our capacity to house people. In the last quarter (July to September 2025), the proportion of new homeless families and individuals who were successfully housed – moving from homelessness and temporary housing into a stable home – plunged to a critical low of just 4.8%.

This figure is alarming. Compared with the 22% resolution rate in the same quarter last year, it demonstrates paralysis. For every 100 families accepted as homeless, fewer than five found stability. The other 95 are simply being funnelled into the already record-breaking backlog, leaving them in long-term temporary accommodation and their lives in limbo.

“The reason for this collapse is tragically concrete – we are not building enough homes, and the homes we are trying to build are stuck in bureaucratic and infrastructure bottlenecks”

I must be clear – this isn’t a safety net, it’s a growing trap. Families are being left in unstable, temporary situations for indefinite periods, with the backlog compounding the trauma of homelessness every single day.

The reason for this collapse is tragically concrete – we are not building enough homes, and the homes we are trying to build are stuck in bureaucratic and infrastructure bottlenecks.

Our recent analysis of new-home completions shows a 15% slump in the number of finished homes this quarter, including both social and private housing. This is significantly below the long-term average and is a root cause of the allocation collapse, not least as many private homes are bought by social landlords. If we don’t build houses, we can’t allocate them, regardless of how great the need is.

The capacity and intent to build are there – new-home starts show a healthy resilience, increasing by 3.5% in the quarter. But these positive intentions are being stalled systemically. The persistent issues of insufficient wastewater infrastructure capacity and protracted planning processes in some councils prevent the growing number of construction starts from becoming much-needed completed homes, including for the nearly 50,000 households on the social housing waiting list.

For context, there are almost 50,000 households in the Mid Ulster council area.

“The crisis is not abstract – it is a tangible failure of governance and infrastructure that directly impacts people’s lives”

The crisis is not abstract – it is a tangible failure of governance and infrastructure that directly impacts people’s lives. The NI Executive has a moral and political duty to treat this as the emergency it is.

The priority is clear: the £130m of capital funding flowing to Northern Ireland from the autumn Budget must be allocated to the social housing development programme, and investment must be unlocked for Northern Ireland Water. We must grow the allocation pipeline by unblocking infrastructure failures and streamlining planning.

We cannot afford to leave one family in the growing queue a day longer than necessary. Our society should be judged by how we treat each other, and right now, we are failing.

Justin Cartwright, national director, Chartered Institute of Housing Northern Ireland