Temporary accommodation demand in Derry & Strabane soars 50% in 4 years

During a deputation to members, at a Special Full Council meeting on Wednesday, Director of Housing Services, Jennifer Hawthorne, also noted that there was a disproportionate amount of temporary accommodation provided by hotels and B&Bs in the district and outlined tentative plans for a Derry Dispersed Intensively Managed Emergency Accommodation (DIME).

The number of households in the district placed in temporary accommodation had risen from 1,046 in 2019/20 to 1,593 in 2023/24, an increase of around 52 percent, Ms Hawthorne noted.

She added that the “vast majority” of the households placed in temporary accommodation were in single lets (houses or flats), followed by voluntary sector and NIHE hostels, and then hotels and B&Bs.

“That has grown significantly over the past couple of years and we’re sitting at around 460 to 480 placements across the whole of the North in hotels and B&Bs,” she said.

“In Derry that is the disproportionate number. We’re sitting with around 200 at any given time in Derry, because of the inability to get single lets [and] mass housing pressures in the city.

“The wonderful, joyous expansion of the university and the demand for rented accommodation is putting significant pressure on housing as a whole.

“We have a statutory duty, and if somebody phones at six o ‘clock tonight and needs somewhere we have to find them somewhere.

“If we don’t have hostels [or] single lets, the only opportunity to fulfil our statutory duty is to put them into hotels and B&Bs.”

In conclusion, Ms Hawthorne outlined plans for an imminent Derry DIME service, a hostel provision for very complex cases and people with addiction and mental health problems that she said was “clearly needed in Derry”.

“Eddie [Doherty, NIHE West Area Manager] has already done the business case and set out all the need,” she said.

“We only have one service in all of Northern Ireland, in Belfast, we have just concluded an exercise to secure a specialist service in Derry, and we are hoping to make that announcement within days.

“That new service is much needed for very vulnerable people in Derry.”