To ask the Minister for Communities whether his Department has made any assessment of funding pressures affecting homelessness services, including the impact on (i) service capacity; (ii) waiting times; (iii) temporary accommodation use; and (iv) people (a) at risk of; and (b) experiencing, homelessness.

This issue is an operational matter for Northern Ireland Housing Executive; they have advised me as follows:

“The Housing Executive recognises the potential impacts of being unable to fund services in the event of a significant funding shortfall. This has been outlined in previous Equality Impact Assessment responses on earlier budgets, which highlighted the range of support provided by projects funded through homelessness funding.

As previously noted, and still applicable, these projects range from upstream prevention services to day centres and outreach support, providing a vital service to those experiencing chronic homelessness and rough sleeping, often preventing individuals from engaging with the health and justice systems. This could leave thousands of people experiencing homelessness without services to enable them to resolve their homelessness.”