To ask the Minister for Communities for his assessment of the appropriateness of Standing Stones Lodge, Belfast, being used as temporary accommodation by the Housing Executive.

The Housing Executive has statutory responsibility for responding to homelessness, including provision of homelessness accommodation, as such I have sought the requested information from the Chief Executive, specifically in relation to Standing Stones Lodge, who has advised me as follows:

“Any use of Standing Stones Lodge for temporary accommodation are within arrangements whereby the Housing Executive avails of non-standard accommodation on a non-contractual basis as part of our statutory duties. The use of Standing Stones Lodge is concerned solely with securing the availability of accommodation units to enable the Housing Executive to discharge its statutory duty to make available temporary accommodation to individuals presenting as homeless, in certain circumstances, pursuant to the Housing (NI) Order 1988, as amended, (‘the 1988 Order’).

Against that background, it is important to clarify that the accommodation at Standing Stones Lodge is made available as a short-term measure in order to meet immediate need for temporary accommodation provision and that there is a strong emphasis on moving an individual homeless applicant as quickly as possible to alternative standard temporary accommodation, or in some cases permanent housing."

It is my intention to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurrent.

I will continue to work with Grainia Long, the NIHE and the wider sector to address this issue and to make a long-term commitment to developing Housing-Led and Housing First provision.

That said, it will take time to achieve these ambitions and my short-term focus will continue to be supporting those currently in crisis.