AQW 6285/16-21

Mr Roy Beggs
Ulster Unionist Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 26/10/2016
Answered On Date: 10/11/2016
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities to outline what measures are in place to support and aid homeless people during the winter period.

Answer:

The Housing Executive spends £35.6m per year on a wide range of temporary accommodation and support services to homeless households. These include:

157 Voluntary Sector Hostels;

18 Housing Executive Hostels;

Approximately 1,100 single let dwellings (which are private sector houses and flats acquired as necessary on a temporary basis);

70 units of Dispersed Intensively Managed Emergency (DIME)Accommodation ; and

Drop-In Centres, Floating Support Services and Street Outreach Services.

There are a range of specialist services commissioned by the Housing Executive to work with the relatively low numbers at risk from rough sleeping in Belfast and Londonderry. These include the Welcome Organisation which is funded to deliver the drop-in, street outreach and floating support in Belfast. De Paul Ireland are funded to provide drop-in and floating support services in Londonderry and a Housing First service in both locations which works to provide permanent housing solutions with support for homeless people with complex needs.

In addition a series of actions arose from an Inter-Ministerial Action Plan to address homelessness and rough sleeping in Belfast which are further improving services in the city.