Over 32,000 people in urgent need of social housing in Northern Ireland

By Jordan Moore and Eden Wilson

UTV can reveal the extent of Northern Ireland's social housing crisis with over 30,000 people in need of a home.

Figures obtained by UTV show there is a clear shortage of social housing with more and more people added to Housing Executive waiting lists as construction struggles to keep up with demand.

They show how little homes have been built across Northern Ireland as demand soars. In some council areas there have been no homes built.

As of March 2023 there were 45,105 people on the Housing Executive waiting list - more than double the population of Portadown.

Out of that number there are 32,633 people in 'housing stress', which are people in desperate need of a home.

This has grown from 30,926 in April 2021.

Figures from the Housing Executive show that between 2016-2023 there have only been 9,790 social homes built.

This is despite the NIHE saying a total of 23,557 homes are needed over the period of 2022-2023.

In Belfast the total social housing need over that period is 7,984 and the number of people in housing stress in Belfast has risen from 7,134 in 2016 to 9,531.

For context, if the council where to meet its five-year target it would need to construct 1,597 houses a year.

In 2022/23 only 405 were built.

In Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, no houses were built between 2022/23, despite 748 homes needing to be built to meet demand.

Likewise, In Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon Council only 206 homes were built between 2016-2023, despite a projected need of 1,101 from 2022-2025.

In 2022/23 only 38 homes were built in the council area.

Paddy Gray is a Professor of Housing and previously worked for Ulster University.

He says there are a number of reasons behind the current social housing shortage.

In a statement the Housing Executive said: “We have acknowledged that current funding difficulties will exacerbate the already difficult position of providing sufficient numbers of suitable, new homes across Northern Ireland to meet increasing demand.

“This means people will be waiting longer than we would want to be provided with homes suitable to their needs."

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