Derry/Strabane is crisis housing hotspot with £6.5m spent in 2023/24

SDLP Opposition MLA Mark H. Durkan has described escalating expenditure on temporary accommodation in the city as ‘completely unsustainable’.

He was speaking after receiving information from the Communities Minister Gordon Lyons that revealed £34m was spent on hotel and B&B type housing placements in 2023/24, up from £28m in 2022/23.

Derry & Strabane continues to lead in local council spending with £6,552,009 spent in the city and district. This was more than the £6,283,239 spend in Belfast over the year.

Speaking after an Opposition motion to declare a housing emergency in the North, was backed by the Assembly, Mr. Durkan said: “Such an exorbitant level of spending is unsustainable and serves as stark remind of the dire need for long-term solutions to the housing crisis affecting a record high 47,000 applicants waiting for a social home.

“It’s no surprise that we have seen a significant increase in spending in this area after the Executive stopped funding a number of homelessness prevention programmes.

"But it should be a concern that increased demand will have a knock-on effect on the private rental market, pushing up prices and plunging people into debt and placing them at further risk of homelessness.

“£34m is an astounding amount of money for what is essentially a short-term fix. There’s been a tenfold increase on non-standard accommodation spend since 2018. It’s worth remembering that, the next time financial constraints are used as an excuse for this Executive’s lack of creativity.

"Temporary accommodation has been used as a sticking plaster to the gaping wound of housing, rather than stemming the flow, it’s bleeding us dry.”

Last year Mr. Durkan expressed serious concern about figures obtained from the Housing Executive (NIHE) which showed that the amount of money spent on single lets, hotels, B&Bs and specialised accommodation in Derry/Strabane rose from £929,965 in 2018/19 to £5,815,335 in 2022/23.

NIHE data demonstrated that 41 per cent of known area spending on temporary accommodation for 2022/23 was spent in Derry/Strabane and that more money was spent on emergency housing in the city and district last year (£5,815,335) than was spent across the whole of the North in 2018/19 (£5,797,545).

Following the release of the new data, Mr. Durkan said: “"It deeply concerns me that Derry remains the North’s hotspot for temporary accommodation, despite the Housing Executive’s assurances of reducing their reliance on non-standard placements in the area.

"This continued strain is impacting wider frontline services, including local policing, emergency services, and primary healthcare

“Meanwhile, for families experiencing homelessness in Derry, obtaining an emergency placement in the city has become a luxury. How can that be, given the colossal expenditure?

“Immediate intervention is required to mitigate against the perverse situation unfolding in the housing sector. This situation was forewarned yet necessary action wasn’t taken instead solutions to the prevention of homelessness were kicked further down the road.”

Pop-up B&Bs a local speciality?