Homeless support organisations and charities fear that £3m in funding cuts to a key housing support programme could threaten critical services for over 20,000 people in Northern Ireland. The cuts have been advised by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, a move which has angered service providers such as Simon Community NI, who say that they could be forced to close hostels. Simon Community NI Chief Executive, Jim Dennison said “these are some of the most vulnerable in society and we are their safety net. If we scale back our services, where do they go? We have realigned programmes to maintain services, but can’t plan for next year. We had hoped to take on new staff and trial new programmes on addiction and mental health. We would ask the NIHE to reconsider.”
