The figures were published on the Northern Ireland Assembly website, following a request from the Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan
The amount of money spent on temporary accommodation in each of Northern Ireland’s 11 local council areas has been revealed by a Stormont minister.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has provided a breakdown of the total spend, which is just shy of £40 million, in the 2024-25 financial year.
The figures were published on the Northern Ireland Assembly website, following a request from the Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan.
READ MORE: From zero to millions – cost to NIHE of temporary accommodation revealedREAD MORE: £20m bill to put up NI’s homeless in hotels and B&Bs ‘highlights need for more social housing’
Mr Durkan has been a vocal critic of the amount of money spent on temporary accommodation for some time.
In February, following another query to the Communities Minister through Stormont’s written question mechanism that allows MLAs to request certain information from Ministers, it was revealed that the spending on “non-standard” temporary accommodation, which can include the use of B&Bs and hotels for those facing homelessness, amounted to nearly £17 million for the financial year.
Ten years ago, the figure was zero.
The latest figures show that the spending on temporary accommodation of all types, not just the “non standard” accommodation outlined earlier this year, amounted to £39,973,925 in the 2024-25 financial year that ended in April.
In a statement, Mr Durkan said: “There needs to be a real focus, not just from the Department for Communities but from the whole Executive, to address this. These figures show the financial cost of homelessness but there is a massive social cost to this too.”
In response to Mr Durkan’s written query, the Minister Gordon Lyons said: “This issue is an operational matter for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. I have sought the requested information from the Chief Executive, who has advised me as follows: ‘The table below includes the gross cost of all forms of temporary accommodation in the 2024-25 financial year broken down by Local Council area. These figures remain draft pending completion of the annual audit process.
The miscellaneous line outlines spend related to placements where geographical data was not captured.'”
The temporary accommodation spending in each of Northern Ireland’s council areas in 2024/25 is as follows:
- Antrim & Newtownabbey £2,042,951
- Ards & North Down £1,403,181
- Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon £2,237,690
- Belfast £18,625,571
- Causeway Coast & Glens £485,427
- Derry & Strabane £8,678,916
- Fermanagh & Omagh £1,517,923
- Lisburn & Castlereagh £1,712,496
- Mid & East Antrim £1,169,534
- Mid Ulster £532,016
- Newry, Mourne & Down £1,493,064
- Miscellaneous £75,156
- Total Costs £39,973,925
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