Aontú’s Newry & Armagh Rep, Roisin Mulgrew, speaks out on the housing situation locally and the information obtained by Aontú that there has been a 50% rise in the waiting list for those waiting 5 years or more
The 50% rise since 2021, in people waiting more than 5 years for housing in Newry, Mourne and Down district is both shocking and unacceptable, claims Aontu’s Newry & Armagh representative, Roisin Mulgrew. The number of applicants has gone up from 1948 in 2021, to 2976 in 2026. This information came to light through a FOI request from Aontú. Each application could represent a family, not just an individual, and so the numbers affected could be much higher. There is also an 80% rise in those waiting for a transfer in the same time period.
Roisin continued, “It is incredible that despite the Stormont executive being in existence for 27 years, they have collectively failed to tackle the absolutely dire housing situation in the North of Ireland.
The waiting list now exceeds 50,000 people, the vast majority of whom are deemed to be in housing stress.
Pledges to build 2200 homes yearly were never fulfilled and were always going to be totally inadequate to even begin to tackle the issue.
Day and daily, I speak to families paying over-inflated rents for private accommodation,” continued the Aontu representative. “Accommodation is often in a poor state of repair or not suitable for the needs of the family.
Housing is a basic human right. Aontu calls on the Stormont executive to support the housing executive in securing the necessary monies to start building decent homes again.”
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