Hospital 'becoming night shelter for homeless', charity fears

Councilor Paul McCusker, founder of The People’s Kitchen in Belfast (BBC)

Emergency departments at Belfast hospitals are “turning into night shelters” for homeless people seeking warmth and safety, it has been claimed.

Community and voluntary organizations have told BBC NI Spotlight that the homelessness system is in “complete chaos”, due to a lack of funding and a reduction in vital services.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons described the housing situation as “completely unacceptable”, adding that he was disappointed there was no capital funding to build more social housing.

The survey also found that the number of people dying while waiting to obtain social housing has increased in recent years.

People’s Kitchen founder and Belfast City Councilor Paul McCusker said voluntary organizations routinely abandoned service users from hospital emergency departments in a bid to keep them safe.

“There is no other choice for them. In talking to our local (emergency) department staff, they clearly see that this is becoming a major problem,” said McCusker, who works closely with the local homeless community.

“My experience over the last few months is unfortunately that our (emergency) services are turning into night shelters.”

More than 30,000 households are currently registered as homeless, according to figures from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE).

Providing more social, affordable and sustainable housing is among the key priorities of the Stormont Executive’s draft program for government.

Kenzie and John are sitting on chairs in a large empty warehouse. She has brown hair, round glasses and wears a black sweater with brightly colored writing. John has dark hair and wears a black zippered jacket with gray sleeves. — Kenzie and John have been homeless for almost a year (BBC)

Spotlight spent time with some of those looking for permanent accommodation, including a teenage couple on a social housing waiting list.

Kenzie and John took refuge in the emergency department at the Mater Hospital when their overnight accommodation fell through.

John, who has been homeless for almost a year, had a persistent cough at the time.

“We just want to be warm and safe, get two or three hours of sleep so we don’t have to worry for a while,” said Kenzie, 18.

“It’s safer than being on the street with all these people around us.

“We are still children in our heads. To be honest, we are not ready to take to the streets.”

The couple both spent much of their childhood in foster care.

Kenzie and John are pictured outside the Mater Hospital in Belfast. The hospital's metal signage is visible in the background. They both wear black jackets, Kenzie wears black framed glasses. — Kenzie and John spoke to BBC Spotlight outside the Mater Hospital where they planned to spend the night (BBC)

When Kenzie was 14, her mother died after a battle with drug addiction and depression.

She is terrified of falling victim to drugs, which she says are a constant presence in Belfast.

“You see needles, you see people doing drugs, you see people fighting over drugs, it’s very scary,” she said.

John, who recently turned 19, said he would “travel around the world and back” and if that meant finding a home, they could call it their own.

“I haven’t felt safe since I lived with my nanny, and that was when I was seven,” he said.

NIHE chief executive Grainia Long said more needed to be done to support young school leavers like John and Kenzie.

“The role and responsibility here lies with all of us in the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure that we have the level of public housing search required over the next decade to ensure that young people who are feel abandoned by the system have a solution. ” she said.

Growing need for housing

Through a Freedom of Information request, Spotlight can reveal that in the 13 months to the end of July, 230 homeless people died while on the NIHE waiting list – an increase of average of more than 17 deaths per month.

In 2018, one hundred and forty-eight people registered as homeless died while waiting to obtain social housing over a period of eleven months, an average of just over thirteen deaths per month.

Ms Long said the deaths reflected “the way we behave as a society, the way we underfund housing and homelessness”.

The Department for Communities said that despite budget restrictions, 5,700 social homes were under construction in Northern Ireland, with 1,400 expected to be completed in the current financial year.

“As work continues to protect the range of essential services within the department’s remit, the minister will advocate for additional funding to meet the growing need for housing,” the spokesperson said.

According to Ms Long, by the end of the decade, around 3,000 new social housing units will need to be built each year over the next 15 to 20 years.

Grainia Long, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. She wears a black jacket and has shoulder-length blonde hair. — NIHE director general Grainia Long said the current situation was “not good enough”. (BBC)

She added that the current situation was not good enough.

“I think we’ve stopped seeing housing as as important as health and education,” she said.

“I can’t guarantee that the housing official will rebuild because it’s not my decision, but what I can guarantee is that if we have the authority to rebuild, we will be ready to rebuild.”

Only recently has the NIHE started to receive funding again for the construction of new social housing, with only six properties built by the organization in the last 25 years.

Instead, new social housing has been built by housing associations since the 1990s.

The associations, which use both public and private funding, have built 20,000 houses since 2010.

Additional reporting by David Hunter.