What is meant by ‘homelessness’?
Becoming homeless can happen to anyone. A person may be homeless if they are:
staying with friends or family
staying in a hostel
staying in a bed breakfast
living in very overcrowded conditions
at risk of violence if they stay in their home
living in poor conditions that are damaging their health
living in a house that is unsuitable for them
rough sleeping
Homelessness is often understood as people living on streets. However, whilst rough sleepers may represent one element of homelessness, it is a misconception to think that these are only homeless people who need help. Even those who have a roof over their heads may still be considered homeless.
The Northern IrelHo(NI) Order 1988 (as amended) tasks Northern IrelHoExecutive with responding to homelessness, places a statutory duty on HoExecutive to provide interim and/or permanent accommodation for certain homeless households, dependent upon investigations assessment of their circumstances.
This report seeks to provide a more thorough understanding of homelessness through statistics, case studies, factual information. What about rough sleepers? Whilst there are no statistics on rough sleepers in this publication at present, HoExecutive perform annual street counts of rough sleepers in Belfast, Londonderry any other area where street activity is identified by Homelessness Local Area Groups.
Additional data from PSNI others is also analysed following standard practice for establishing number of rough sleepers across UK.
