Republican News · Thursday 11 October 2001

Housing crisis in the North

Sinn FÈin spokesperson on Social Development, Michelle Gildernew says housing statistics released by the Social Development department paint a bleak picture.

A shocking 12,694 households in the Six Counties have presented themselves as homeless in 2001, a 15% increase since 1990.

"There has been a increase of 15% in the numbers presenting themselves as homeless while there has only been an increase of 2% in the total number of houses," the Fermanagh and Tyrone MP pointed out.

"In real terms, the 13,000 new homes should have been enough to meet the increase in homelessness and indeed there are now nearly 12,700 homeless households so in an ideal world we should be in a position to tackle this disgrace."

"11,326 of the new dwellings started during 2000-01, 92%, were commissioned by the private sector. At the same time there is an absolute decrease in Housing Executive stock. There has been a 21% increase in the numbers of houses sold by the Housing Executive, which in itself is not problematic. The problem arises from the fact that we are not building nearly enough social housing.

"The result is that the crisis in housing - with young families forced to remain in the parental home, people living in substandard accommodation and the increase in those presenting as homeless - looks set to continue unless we seriously reassess our policies on social housing."