In conjunction with the Business Committee, the Speaker has given leave to Andrew McMurray to raise the matter of homelessness in South Down. Andrew, you have up to 15 minutes.

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I want to raise the issue of homelessness in my constituency of South Down and, more broadly, in Northern Ireland. I think that I can be confident in saying that there is no Member for whom homelessness is not a regular issue.

This is my first opportunity to secure an Adjournment debate, so I spent a bit of time reflecting on the issues that I want to raise. There is a concept model known as Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Put very simply, it is a pyramid of needs that human beings require to be satisfied. If the base needs are not or cannot be met, those above them cannot be fulfilled. Some Members may be familiar with it. For me, it may be a hangover from being the child of two social workers or from my postgraduate studies in youth community work, but, as a concept, it has always stuck with me.

We in the Chamber are lucky and privileged to be in the position that we are in. It would be remiss of me not to use my position to speak up for those who are not as lucky or fortunate as I am. Before I go on, I want to state that, due to how the statistics are compiled, I will refer to council areas as well as constituency areas at times. That is just a hangover from the way in which they are compiled. As of 30 June, 58,241 people were officially homeless in Northern Ireland. That is one in 33 people, up from one in 34 people in the space of six months. Of those, 5,447 were homeless in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area. Just 10 years ago, the figure was 2,536. The number of individuals in statutory homelessness in Newry, Mourne and Down has increased by 115% over the past 10 years. That is the third-highest increase among the 11 council areas.

The provision of temporary accommodation is skewed towards Belfast, so, for every homeless person in Newry, Mourne and Down, there are probably others who have had to leave the area in order to move into temporary accommodation in Belfast or beyond. Indeed, an instance was recalled to me of when an individual was placed on a bus from Downpatrick to Derry in order to receive shelter for a night. While the issue may manifest itself in a city or town outside my constituency, that is not to say that it is not a problem in my constituency.

In Northern Ireland, nearly six of every 10 households in statutory homelessness in June were families, and close to 20,000 homeless individuals were children and young people under 18. To paraphrase Bruce Springsteen in 'The Ghost of Tom Joad':

"No home.... no peace, no rest".

I refer back to Maslow's hierarchy of needs: those people are, quite literally, surviving, and all other development needs are put on the back-burner.

Those numbers are shocking, but they are not even the full story. There are also the so-called hidden homeless, who would be eligible for help from the Housing Executive but have not yet come forward. For example, staff at one local homelessness organisation told me about a young man in his 20s who had come through the care system and was now sofa-surfing. After a while, he had outstayed his welcome. At that point, he emerged from being hidden homeless and sought support from said organisation. Nobody knows for sure how many people are affected by hidden homelessness. In 2020, a report by the charity Crisis estimated that the number could be between 70,000 and 112,000, or 9% to 15% of all households in Northern Ireland.

It is fair to say that Northern Ireland as a whole is experiencing a homelessness crisis, but, first and foremost, homelessness is a personal crisis for each individual affected by it. It is a deeply frightening and unsettling experience to find yourself without a safe and secure home. Research shows that homelessness has a negative impact on people's health and life expectancy. It leads to increased risk of contact with the criminal justice system as well as other negative physical, psychological and social impacts.

A member of staff at one of the local homelessness organisations in Downpatrick spoke to me about the poverty of hope that many homeless people experience and the devastating impact that that has on their lives. I will read out her words, because she put it better than I ever could:

"Our young people, in general, can survive hard things if they know that something better is on its way. Despair leads some of our young people to the darkest of places. Suicide and self-harming behaviours, drug use and overdoses, violence and sexual assault are experiences we hear about from our young people daily. For some of our young people, we live in real fear of the phone call that tells us they didn't make it, and we have lost young people to these things. We have supported young people living in tents, in abusive relationships, young people with nobody else who would think to check on them. When you see something on the news about a young person in our catchment areas who has experienced something horrific, the chances are we know, or knew, them. None of these experiences happen in a vacuum, though. In many of these situations, you can trace back beyond the individual and community trauma to political choices, to inequality, poverty and emaciated public services. The experience of homelessness and often the equally traumatic events that lead to them do great harm to people's confidence. It is crucial that high-quality support is provided in addition to a home."

We discussed the housing emergency in the Assembly last week. You cannot prevent homelessness without an adequate supply of housing. That cannot be overstated, and it was discussed in the Chamber last week during the debate on the SDLP's motion. As such, I will focus on some of the other issues that are faced by homelessness organisations in South Down and beyond. I also pay tribute to the charities and organisations working in the sector and the very valuable work that they do in supporting men, women, young people and families in South Down at a very vulnerable point in their lives. I thank them for taking the time to speak to me in preparation for this discussion and for sharing their experiences and concerns with me.

All the conversations with those involved in the organisations were humbling and, at times, moving. MACS Supporting Children and Young People provides supported housing and a range of other support services for children and young people aged between 16 and 25 who are homeless, are at risk of homelessness or are struggling in other ways. The Simon Community operates a hostel in Downpatrick, where it offers temporary accommodation and support to people who present as homeless. The Housing Executive in Downpatrick does its best to support people experiencing homelessness and housing stress short of homelessness every day and to move them into accommodation as soon as possible. I also thank Homeless Connect in Belfast, which shared its insights into homelessness statistics and policy issues with me. Those organisations provide a roof over the head of people who are experiencing homelessness, but they also provide invaluable personal support, which is so important to helping people to move on and successfully sustain a tenancy in the future.

Voluntary organisations, such as MACS and the Simon Community, are doing all that they can to help, but conditions in the sector are very difficult. Very often, those organisations work with individuals to place them in temporary accommodation. The word "temporary" suggests that that is for only a short period, but that is not always, or even usually, the case. I met a gentleman who became homeless because of a relationship breakdown and slept in his car for some time. He has now been living in temporary accommodation in Downpatrick for 18 months and cannot spend time with his daughter because he does not have a home. I refer back to the hierarchy of needs: emotional, social and educational needs cannot be met if you are struggling to meet the need of shelter.

Homelessness support staff told me that they knew of people who had been in temporary accommodation for several years. Those cases are not exceptional. In April this year, 63% of households living in temporary accommodation had been there for more than six months, and 44% had been there for more than a year. That stretches the definition of "temporary". It is, of course, a stark expression of the housing crisis that we are experiencing.

For many, there is very little hope of moving on any time soon. In Downpatrick, the average number of housing points needed to get into social housing is 170·4. You get 70 points for being homeless. There are currently 3,986 households on the social housing waiting list in Newry, Mourne and Down, 1,300 of which have been waiting for over five years. Only 360 allocations were made last year. Private rentals are often unaffordable for low-income households and often present other access hurdles as well. The Simon Community runs a deposit scheme and has plans to provide affordable rental housing through its creating homes scheme, but property is expensive in South Down.

I will spend a little bit of time talking about the challenges that housing support staff face in providing support to people in need. The first priority of the Housing Executive's homelessness strategy for 2022-27 is to prioritise homelessness prevention. That is incredibly important, because it can prevent further harm. It also saves a lot of money. However, prevention is under immense pressure. Staff recruitment and retention is an enormous challenge for the sector. Trust relationships are key to effective support, but frequently changing agency staff makes that very difficult. That has a negative impact on good outcomes. Homelessness support is a very challenging and skilled job. It is demanding in emotional terms, too.

It takes a committed and passionate workforce to provide the service, but that is not often reflected in the pay or working conditions in the sector. In fact, I have heard from people working in the sector that some of them have made use of food banks and that many struggle to make ends meet. I quote from one of the conversations:

"We chat with each other in the office about where to get the cheapest noodles to tide us over until payday. It is a reality that many of us just won't be able to keep doing this indefinitely. We are acutely aware of poverty and know that people we serve experience things we probably will never have to, so we do not like to make a fuss, but we also have to pay the bills."

The sector needs to be professionalised. The staff working there are already professional to all intents and purposes, but working conditions are not.

At the root of all that is funding in quantity, stability and structural terms. Quantity-wise, a lot of housing support is funded through the Supporting People programme grant, which has been frozen since 2007-08. The Minister for Communities has promised above-inflation increases to the Supporting People programme, which is brilliant, but it does not make up for the 15-year freeze. Stability-wise, the homelessness agencies that I spoke to were not sure whether that increase would be recurring. The homelessness service budget was also squeezed, and many services are now funded on a month-to-month basis. That uncertainty means that they can neither recruit people nor increase pay. The looming increase in minimum wage next year might mean that many of the organisations will become unviable, if funding is not increased accordingly. Structurally speaking, prevention services are funded out of the same pot as temporary accommodation, but only the latter is subject to a statutory duty. As the demand for temporary accommodation increases, as it has done fivefold since the COVID-19 pandemic, the squeeze on prevention tightens. We need to turn that around.

Finally, I will briefly reflect on the character from whom the Simon Community takes its name. While his name is attributed to that particular organisation, the character referenced bears relevance to all those involved in the homelessness sector. Simon of Cyrene is the gentlemen who is referenced, and, if you know, you know. To give Members a bit of context, I will say that Simon stepped forward and undertook to share the burden of something that was almost impossible to bear. He had to bear it alone, and he did so without speaking and without fanfare. When he completed the task, he went back, unreferenced, into the background. That is very much what those in the homeless sector do with such grace. They deserve our utmost thanks and respect for doing so.

Thank you. All other Members who speak will have approximately seven minutes.

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

[Translation: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.]

I sincerely thank my constituency colleague Andrew McMurray for securing this important Adjournment debate.

Homelessness is not just a personal misfortune; it is a societal failure. In Ireland, we face a crisis of social and affordable housing, which is made worse by the rising cost of living. With over 88,000 people waiting for social housing, 75% of whom are in severe housing stress, it is clear that the current system is unsustainable. Families across the country are being pushed to the brink, and extortionate rent prices, coupled with a severe lack of available homes, force many into a state of insecurity.

Our social housing stock is declining at an alarming and unsustainable rate. The Department for Communities must take urgent action to stop that. We need bold and immediate steps to ensure that new social and affordable homes are built, particularly in areas such as South Down. My colleagues will appreciate that 40% of the rural housing need in the North exists in South Down. We know that all too well, but it is a shocking statistic.

While co-ownership has been a successful route to home ownership for many, it is severely underutilised in South Down. In 2023-24, the area saw the delivery of only 19 new co-ownerships homes, making it one of the lowest-performing areas. The Minister must do more to allow families to find a realistic path to sustainable and secure housing.

For many of our constituents in South Down, the dream of living in the communities in which they grew up is slipping away. In villages such as Rostrevor and Hilltown and towns such as Warrenpoint and Kilkeel, the cost of housing has skyrocketed. That, along with the rise of Airbnbs and the shortage of rental property, locks young people and families out of their home towns. The very communities that shaped them are becoming financially inaccessible to them.

We need immediate decisive action, and the Minister must recognise the urgency of the crisis and prioritise the publication of the housing supply strategy. That is a critical step towards building new and affordable homes that can secure the future of our communities. The housing crisis affects us all. If we are to ensure a fair, equal and prosperous future, we must tackle it head-on, and we must tackle it now.

I thank my constituency colleague Andrew McMurray for securing the debate this evening.

We know that becoming homeless can happen to anyone. Over 48,000 are now on the waiting list for social housing in Northern Ireland, with 8,452 presenting as homeless in the most recent reporting period, October 2023 to March 2024. It really is such a significant issue in Northern Ireland, and it is good to speak about it in the House this evening.

Homelessness is widely misunderstood. Many just understand it as looking around and seeing people living on the streets, and the real challenge that we face is explaining and raising awareness of what it really means. The definition of "homeless" includes people staying with friends and families, those staying in hostels, rough sleepers and those living in homes that are unsuitable for them.

In rural areas such as South Down, homelessness looks very different from what it looks like in urban areas. Rural homelessness is an unseen crisis in the countryside, driven by limited access to services and an absence of affordable homes. Rising rural homelessness is an inevitable impact of housing shortages. The extent of the crisis is unclear as limited rural data is captured in many official statistics. The figures show that homelessness has increased overall in the last decade, and, while interventions have helped in urban areas, their impact is less successful in rural communities. I would like to hear the Minister's assessment of the specific challenges regarding homelessness in rural areas.

The recent publication of the Budget this year paints a bleak picture, with only 400 new-start social homes to be built. The Housing Executive has made its case and has told the Communities Minister that it needs £20 million to more fully fund the homelessness fund. The crisis is real, and we are all well versed in the financial pressures that we face. I appreciate that the Minister is under pressure, but we need to keep being well versed in the issue and raise awareness.

The issue of temporary housing is significant and is acutely felt in South Down, with it being one of the most common things raised in my office when it comes to housing issues. Hotels, vacant homes and flats in rural areas of South Down have increasingly been used for temporary accommodation for people from outside the area, which, with the lack of communication, has caused significant disruption and misunderstanding about what is happening in quiet country towns. The constant turnover of people and the lack of consultation with the community, local police, elected representatives, the Housing Executive and some housing associations has resulted in a lot of local crisis, public meetings and interventions. In the absence of permanent housing solutions, I recognise the need for the temporary accommodation, but I ask the Minister to please provide some clear guidance to housing bodies to enter improved communication to communities with relevant stakeholders moving forward.

Another issue that is repeatedly being raised with me with regard to temporary accommodation, where people are moving in and out of areas, is children being moved in and out of schools, the change of school environment and the lack of transport. With temporary accommodation often lasting for significant periods, there is a lot of difficulty and communication barriers, and I ask that officials in the Education Authority (EA) and the Department for Communities work more closely to avoid disruption for those children.

The absence of information on homelessness by constituency or town reduces the transparency on where some of the issues lie, especially in areas like South Down, where our data being published is for the Newry, Mourne and Down district. As Andrew outlined, that demonstrates significant issues and movements, but the transparency around what it means for rural communities is hard to pull out of that data, as issues are often skewed by the bigger towns and the city of Newry in the reported figures. To really grasp the issues in those rural areas, we need to reflect on how we capture the data and report it.

Where the housing supply is limited and when any funding is awarded in South Down, we face an additional challenge. If and when the budget is awarded, Newry, Mourne and Down council's planning system is one of the slowest in the country and has the longest waiting lists, with it being some two and a half years before many cases are even looked at. That is a potential additional crisis, if funding becomes available. I ask the Minister if there are plans for his Department to work with councils to expedite planning when any new proposed social housing may become available for the district.

I return to the point that I made at the start: anyone can become homeless. Many people who are deemed homeless do not even consider themselves to be. Many people come to my office facing a variety of issues — health crises, family issues and addiction management — and, often, they are moving between locations. They move between friends and families, staying in spare rooms and sofa-surfing. I struggle to help them when they do not accept that they are deemed to be homeless. When they can accept that and present as homeless, their journey to the support that they need can be navigated. However, there needs to be increased awareness of hidden homelessness and what it really means for people. I ask the Department for Communities to commit to providing information on and increasing awareness of hidden homelessness. As an elected representative, I will be happy to promote anything on that that I can in the constituency.

The work of the voluntary and community sector in this space is invaluable in South Down, given that, as with many services, things are centralised to the cities and larger towns. I recognise the work of the churches and, as Andy mentioned, the Simon Community and our County Down Rural Community Network. Those organisations are invaluable in providing support for and raising awareness among people in our community when needed.

I fully realise that the Minister is under immense budgetary pressure. I appreciate the opportunity to raise with him in the Chamber some of the issues facing us with regard to homelessness in South Down.

I thank our constituency colleague Andy McMurray for bringing the Adjournment debate to the House. Regardless of whether people are in South Down or South Antrim, the issue of homelessness has relevance, and, sadly, it does not appear to be getting any easier.

All of us here will have been contacted in our constituency offices by people who are crying out for a home that they can call their own. We represent them as best we can, work alongside officials in the Housing Executive and ensure that they get every support possible through agencies such as Housing Rights, yet, time and again, we hear that people's points just are not enough for them to be allocated a property. That is a cause of frustration for us and for the individuals who contact the offices. I have no doubt that it is also a cause of frustration for the Housing Executive, the social housing organisations and, indeed, the Minister.

We continue to find ourselves in the midst of a housing emergency in which demand outstrips the supply of social housing, so much so that, just last week, the SDLP secured a commitment from the House to recognise that housing emergency. It is our hope that action will follow from that. The action that we need is for the 47,000-plus people who are on the Housing Executive's waiting list. In our constituency, there are well in excess of 3,000 applicants in housing stress, more than 1,000 applicants who are homeless and more than 750 people who are on full-duty status. Whether they are from the 'Point, Downpatrick or the rural areas around the Mournes, we have far too many people and families who face homelessness or are homeless already.

We all know that those are not just statistics and that there are people, often with families, behind the numbers. Being unable to have a home to call your own causes disruption for families. Being forced to move into temporary accommodation and hostels can often bring an unwarranted stigma. It can also cause issues in education, as Diane Forsythe referenced, when families are moved about and children have to move from school to school or are so far from their school that they face long journeys each day.

If we are to address homelessness, we really need to address rising rent costs. They are spiralling out of control, with Housing Executive rent prices in parts of South Down the second highest across the North. The local housing allowance for people in those parts of South Down does not meet the rent price. I ask the Minister this question: what more can the Executive do to look at the lived reality of those who find themselves in housing stress, having to make an application for social housing and suddenly realising that they can no longer afford to live in an area that has been their home for so many years? What hope can the Executive offer the people in South Down and across the North who are homeless?

As one of my constituents reflected to me about the process:

"I am tired moving on. It is soul-destroying because you have nothing to look forward to. Family can only do so much, but it does not help you to get a home."

The homeless people who I know in South Down, who passionately care about their area, do not need another strategy. They need action that will get them a home, and they cannot wait any longer. When will the Executive start delivering homes for people in South Down? When will the Executive stop letting people down?

Homelessness and poverty go hand in hand. We must get serious about combating poverty as well. Poverty is, after all, a political choice, and we need our Executive to finally choose a course of action that will not leave people in poverty but will give them the best possible start in life, beginning with a home to call their own. To the Northern Ireland Executive, the people of South Down will undoubtedly say about homelessness and poverty, "Are you going to do something about it? Can you just get on with it?".

It is clear that much, much more must be done to tackle homelessness across our society and particularly in South Down. As everyone else has done, I thank Andrew McMurray for bringing this vital issue to the Floor and for referencing those many Housing Executive stats from our constituency.

There is limited temporary accommodation in South Down. The Simon Community and MACS in Downpatrick provide a great level of support to those who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness. St Vincent de Paul, the Pantry Foodbank in Castlewellan and Newcastle and the Fountain Foodbank in Downpatrick are amongst the local organisations that go above and beyond to help vulnerable people access food, home-heating fuel, toys for Christmas and much, much more. There are many organisations right across the North that do great work to relocate and rehome vulnerable individuals.

The distressing reality for many who are at risk of homelessness is that they are likely to be forced to seek temporary accommodation in either Belfast or Derry if they are unable to rely on family and friends, which they should not have to do. That is the heartbreaking reality for many in South Down, and I sincerely worry for all those who are in temporary accommodation over the Halloween weekend after hearing really recently of the heavily pregnant woman in Derry who has been told that she must move within days from her temporary accommodation in a local hotel due to the city's Halloween celebrations. That 25-year-old nursing student has been failed by the lack of available social and affordable housing, and she has been in and out of hotels and B&Bs since applying for social housing.

Homeless organisations provide vital support to people who are without a home, and I commend all those organisations, volunteers and everyone who has worked immensely hard to provide shelter to the homeless and the most vulnerable. However, they are under significant pressure. That is unsustainable and is putting further strain on those who provide help to the most vulnerable in our society.

How can we take tackling homelessness seriously when we still have not seen a long-term plan to tackle the issue? My office, like others, regularly deals with families that are facing homelessness. I must add that our local housing officers do their very best to help and offer support. Again, the reality is that we do not have enough homes here in the North to place those families. To put a temporary roof over their head, families are being forced to move their children out of their local schools and out of the communities that they grew up in. We need the Minister and his Department to focus on fixing housing and on working to ensure that everyone, particularly young children, has a secure roof over their head. Housing is a human right, and the Minister must work to deliver safe, decent, social and affordable housing as a priority.

The recent announcement about the old Downe Hospital site in Downpatrick and the ongoing work by Clanmil Housing to turn the site into social housing is welcome. That process brings fresh hope that the construction of much-needed new homes in Downpatrick will commence in early 2025. That is a significant development after a long period of inactivity, and we are pleased to see momentum building to address critical housing needs in the area. The need for single lets and adaptable lifetime homes has never been more pressing, with many local families and individuals waiting for suitable long-term housing solutions. I am calling on the Minister to work to ensure that those homes are delivered now at pace. There cannot be any more delays. We need creative solutions to develop affordable and social homes in Downpatrick, Newcastle, right across South Down and, of course, right across the North.

I join colleagues in thanking the Member opposite for securing this important Adjournment debate. Those who may be tuning in would be forgiven for mistaking which constituency we are talking about. Obviously, today, we are talking about South Down, but the statistics show that the impact of homelessness and the lack of social housing and housing provision on individuals is not unique to South Down; it is reflected across every one of our constituencies.

I welcome the Minister back from his recent trip to the US and look forward to hearing his comments on the work that he and his Department are doing to tackle this important issue.

I have had the immense honour of representing East Belfast for nine years. Each year, when the House has been sitting, we have talked about housing, homelessness, poverty and the impacts that those different issues have on our constituents and many of the people who come to our offices. Many of us can talk about the horror stories and the situations that constituents are highlighting: for example, living out of black bin bags; living out of suitcases; being moved right across Northern Ireland; or going to the Housing Executive only to be told that the temporary accommodation being provided is tens of miles away from their communities, their support networks and where they grew up. The reality is that, in many cases, homelessness leads to people and their children being lifted from the communities that they have known and, as I said, from their support networks and the areas that they know and are accustomed to. It results in many instances of children being unable to attend school. I have seen that in my office.

We have moved from a system of prevention and intervention to a system of managing expectations. That is the fundamental reality of what we have, because demand is far outstripping supply. We and, indeed, many of those on the front line — they have been commended, and I echo those comments — in the Housing Executive and in the plethora of organisations at the coalface are managing the expectations of constituents and of those who, in desperation, are reaching out to them for help and support. I will come back to the important point that the reality is that demand is far outstripping supply.

We look at the statistics, and, as Members said, these are ordinary people. They are people right across all our communities. We are all fortunate: each one of us here this evening will go home to a warm home. How many of our constituents can say that? Each one of us will go home to a roof over our head. How many of our constituents can say that? Who knows? Any one of us could be at risk of homelessness. That is why it is important to get this right and do all that we can and collectively work together. We can stand and pontificate, point fingers and blame, but I know, as, I am sure, does every Member, that that it is not what our constituents want. They want us to work together, work with the housing associations, other providers and interested parties and work with cross-departmental colleagues to deliver change. We need to lay the foundations of change. It was just last week, as has been commented on, that we declared, again, a housing emergency. Again, we referred to having a housing crisis, but we seem not to be able to get a grip of it.

We need to tackle it head-on. We need to look at the broad range of issues and the broad range of solutions. We need to look at how we can tackle issues in areas such as water and waste water infrastructure. There are instances where we are going forward with developments, but the infrastructure is not there to deliver them. We know that we have a problem. We can continue talking about it or we can collectively put our shoulder to the wheel and deliver for the over 47,000 households on the waiting lists. I will put that in context: those over 47,000 households would fill our national football stadium more than twice over. Indeed, a point that I highlighted last week is that I do not even believe that that is the true extent of our housing crisis.

Fundamentally, we need to deliver. We need to deliver change. We have the housing supply strategy. I am prepared to put my shoulder to the wheel with the Minister. My colleagues are prepared to do the same. We need to do all that we can to deliver for those who need us to do so.

I call the Minister for Communities to respond to the debate. Minister, you have up to 10 minutes.

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Member who secured the debate and congratulate him on doing so. I welcome the opportunity to respond. I also congratulate him on his Bruce Springsteen quote — I do not think that anybody had that on their bingo card today — and I look forward to more quotes from The Boss in future.

I recognise many of the issues and concerns that the Member and others have raised on homelessness and housing in South Down. As I have stated in the past, in reality, many of the issues are seen throughout the country. They include growing homelessness pressures and use of temporary accommodation, the demand for social housing and increasing waiting lists, the availability and cost of private rented homes and the difficulty of delivering the necessary infrastructure to provide new homes. Those concerns are not faced in just one constituency. Across Northern Ireland, there is need and demand for high-quality, affordable and sustainable homes that simply is not being met.

Housing in all places is a priority for me, and it must be seen as a priority for the Executive. I have said numerous times in the Chamber that we need a whole-system approach to address the issues that impact on supply. That means that the challenges cannot be addressed by one Department alone but will require an Executive commitment and funding to match. It is welcome that the Executive made provision of more social, affordable and sustainable housing a key priority of the new draft Programme for Government (PFG), but the Executive must now demonstrate that they are committed to that priority.

The whole-system approach is fundamental to the draft housing supply strategy that I am finalising and that I will bring to the Executive in the coming weeks. The strategy will provide a long-term framework to help to bring about the system changes that we need and to facilitate the PFG priority. One of the five key objectives of the housing supply strategy will be the prevention of homelessness and development of housing solutions for those most in need. I want to improve the response to homelessness. The sector is under significant strain as a result of increases in the need for temporary accommodation and demand for social homes, the growth of waiting lists and the issue of the availability and cost of private rented homes.

I want to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurrent and to make the strategic shift to prevention, but we have an immediate issue with the use of temporary accommodation. That costs money that is not being spent on homelessness prevention or supported housing schemes, and staying in insecure, temporary accommodation is not good enough for families. I want to prioritise prevention, to create as much capacity as we can in homelessness services and to make a long-term commitment to developing housing-led and housing-first provision.

It will take time to achieve those ambitions, however, and our short-term focus must continue to be on supporting those who are in crisis. Ultimately, we need more social homes. In the past three years, my Department has invested over £510 million in the social housing development programme (SHDP). That investment recognises the importance of infrastructure. Like water and sewerage connections, social housing is a key part of our infrastructure and a vital asset for us and generations to come. In the year before last, we started 1,950 social homes. In the previous financial year, across Northern Ireland, over 1,500 were started. This year, I would like to have started 2,000, but my Department did not have and was not given the money for that. I know that no Minister is happy with the budget that they received, but I am particularly disappointed because starting 600 social homes this year is not where we need to be. I will continue to bid for further funding to support the SHDP and to help to deliver much-needed additional new social homes.

My next priority is to take action to protect the Housing Executive so that it can continue to provide decent homes for our households and families. I am actively pressing for a solution that will enable the Housing Executive to increase routine and planned investment to deal with maintenance backlogs and fund a programme of retrofit to improve energy efficiency in homes. To do that, we need the Housing Executive to be able to borrow in order to allow the investment that is needed. I am pushing that almost daily in order to ensure that we achieve that change in how budgeting is treated.

My officials and I are in the process of investigating how we can do that without reclassification or significant restructuring.

I will also push forward with work to reform the private rented sector in order to improve the security and quality of tenure for the individuals and families who use it.

I want to mention the Supporting People scheme, because high-quality, effective housing support can make a real difference in people's lives and enable them to live more independently in the community. I am proud of the Supporting People programme, which has been in place for over 20 years, and all that it continues to achieve in offering vulnerable people the opportunity to improve their quality of life. It is vital that the programme is funded to support young people, those with mental health issues or physical or learning disabilities and older people, so that they can thrive in their homes.

I will turn to some of the comments. I will not address them all. There was a common theme throughout the debate, and I will pick up on something that a number of Members said. Cathy Mason said that I needed to focus on fixing housing, and Sinéad Ennis said that immediate action needed to be taken. Andy Allen said that the time for talking is over and we need action, and Colin McGrath asked what we are doing to get on with it. I am pleased to say that we are making progress on the issue.

Mr McGrath said that we do not need a strategy or a plan. I will check Hansard, but he said that the last thing we need is another plan. I think that we do need a plan, and we need to be in a place where we bring all the parties together, because it will take a whole-system approach, and that will be brought forward. That does not mean that action has not already been taken; in fact, in the few months that I have been in office, action has been taken on issues that have been left for far too long. I have already brought forward—.

Will the Minister give way?

Yes.

Respectfully, action, yes. How many social homes did we start this year, and what was the target?

If the Member had listened to me earlier, he would have heard those figures. He will understand the budgetary constraints that I am under.

Give them to me again: 600.

Yes, 600. He will understand the budgetary constraints that I am under, but, even with the budgetary constraints that I face, I have taken action in other areas. I am using the other levers at my disposal to make a difference on the issue. Intermediate rent was not done before in Northern Ireland and is now being progressed. We are using financial transactions capital to help with move-on accommodation. I increased the property value limit for co-ownership. I have given additional funding to the Supporting People programme. I am securing additional funding for the social housing development programme. For the first time ever, I have been able to secure a commitment in the Programme for Government that housing will be a priority for the Executive, and I am bringing forward a housing supply strategy that recognises that it is not an issue for just one Department.

Other Members have rightly indicated the issues around planning. I have stood up for a Sinn Féin Minister in the Executive because I believe that we need the investment in waste water infrastructure in order to deal with some of the housing issues that we face. That is why it is a whole-system approach. That is why we need a plan.

Those actions are being taken with the limited levers that are available. With the budgetary constraints, action is still being taken. Why am I taking those actions? It is because I recognise and understand the importance of housing. If you give somebody a good home, it helps their educational and health outcomes, and it helps with the pressures on nearly every other Department. Safe, secure and warm homes are one of the most important things that we can do, and I am committed to doing that.

Will the Minister give way?

I will give way briefly to the Member.

I am sure that the Minister will agree that the housing crisis and the challenges that face housing are not unique to Northern Ireland. Will he talk about any engagement that he has had with colleagues in the UK Government about support from them? The Minister mentioned tackling the UK-wide housing crisis in his recent statement on housing.

Minister,

[Inaudible.]

Absolutely. The issue was helpfully raised at the British-Irish Council, and I talked to colleagues from other parts of the UK, Ireland and the other islands about some of the actions that have been taken. Those have been useful and fruitful conversations, and it is important that we learn about what is happening in other jurisdictions, such as how to better use the private sector and make the most efficient use of the homes that we have. There are also some ideas about what we can do with empty homes.

Another point that the Member raised that is worth mentioning relates to the demand and supply issue. That goes to the heart of what it is.

Will the Minister bring his remarks to a close?

We need to make sure that we have more homes.

Lastly, Diane Forsythe was absolutely right to mention rural areas, which will be taken account of in the housing supply strategy. I recognise how important the issue is. We will do everything that we can to make sure that we fix the problem and that everybody in Northern Ireland has a home.

Minister, thank you for that response.

Adjourned at 5.35 pm.