Church halls opened as Storm Boelo drives demand for emergency shelter

Church halls opened as emergency shelters during Storm Boelo, with hundreds of people seeking temporary accommodation across Northern Ireland over the weekend, Councillor Paul McCusker said. The Housing Executive said everyone who approached it for help was offered accommodation, Belfast Live reports.

Extra beds were secured each night, with voluntary and community organisations helping to expand capacity. The Housing Executive described demand as “particularly high” and said it also used non-standard temporary accommodation where needed.

A spokesperson cautioned that requests covered a range of housing needs, rather than only help under the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP). Some people approached services more than once.

Call for winter preparations

McCusker has called for the Housing Executive to bring agencies together urgently before winter, so that anyone seeking shelter can obtain it when SWEP is activated.

He said the pressure reflected a “deepening housing crisis and the urgent need to increase accommodation provision.” He also said rough sleeping was increasing in Belfast and homelessness organisations faced rising demand, making suitable accommodation and lasting solutions harder to find.

McCusker said concerns had been raised with the Department for Communities after the previous winter’s severe weather response. In his view, agreed actions had led to little meaningful progress.

How emergency shelter is arranged

The Housing Executive activates SWEP when weather threatens the lives of people sleeping rough. Its “baseline trigger” is a temperature of 0°C, although Met Office warnings are also considered and provisions cover some extreme heat conditions.

While the protocol is active, the Housing Executive works with charities and shelter providers across the region to arrange extra emergency accommodation.

The Housing Executive said SWEP was not a statutory obligation, but it remained committed to providing emergency accommodation during severe weather. It credited partner organisations with helping supply the additional capacity used during the storm.

Source: Belfast Live