Too often we think of homelessness as a crisis that only starts when someone loses their home. But in reality, the path towards homelessness often begins years earlier when a child grows up without safety, stability or support and when opportunities to intervene are missed time and time again. 

But homelessness is not inevitable. With collective action and political will, we can end it once and for all. We must start by making prevention central to the response to homelessness.

A growing crisis

Homelessness in Northern Ireland is at a record high, having more than doubled in the last decade. As we enter 2026, over 62,000 people are officially homeless – a shocking 1 in every 31 people here. Among them are nearly 20,000 children and young people who are growing up without the safety and stability of a home and who are being set on a path to homelessness in adulthood.

This is a crisis we should never accept as inevitable. At Simon Community, we believe housing is a human right and the foundation on which our health, education, family life and communities depend. But too often, too many people in our society are being left behind by the systems that should protect them, often starting in childhood. 

Childhood adversity and homelessness

Recent research by the Simon Community paints a worrying picture on the link between trauma or adversity in childhood, such as abuse, neglect or family breakdown, and homelessness in later life. Our new report Childhood Adversity and Homelessness in Northern Ireland shows that among people experiencing homelessness today:

• Childhood trauma is widespread: 66% of residents in homeless hostels have four or more adverse childhood experiences – nearly four times higher than the 18% seen in the general Northern Ireland population.

• Institutional contact heightens risk: 21% of hostel residents have been in care as children, rising to nearly one in three among women now experiencing homelessness.

Homelessness starts early: a staggering 1 in 4 hostel residents first experience homelessness as children.

These findings show us that often homelessness  does not just suddenly happen. If we are truly serious about ending homelessness in Northern Ireland, then we must not only respond to the crisis when someone loses their home, we need to step in much earlier to prevent it from ever reaching that point in the first place.

The upstream parable puts it best:

Two people are standing by a river. They see someone struggling in the water and pull them out. Soon, more people are swept past and they keep rescuing them. Finally, one person climbs out and starts walking upstream.

“Where are you going?” asks the other.

The person responds: “I’m going upstream to stop whatever is pushing them in”.

For too long our homelessness response has been focused almost entirely downstream, rescuing people once they are already in crisis. Prevention requires us to move upstream and address the drivers of homelessness before people are pushed into it.

Moving upstream

There are three critical changes that would help us shift decisively towards preventing homelessness here:

Extend the ‘threatened with homelessness’ window

The ‘threatened with homelessness window’ defines how far in advance the Housing Executive can intervene when a household is at risk. Since 1988, this window has remained at 28 days in Northern Ireland, often leaving the Housing Executive with just four weeks to prevent a person or family from losing their home or to find them somewhere else to live. In contrast, England, Scotland and Wales have all extended the window in recent years to 56 days, and all three nations are now exploring  further extensions of up to six months to allow more time for agencies to support people at risk of homelessness and prevent it.  

Colm Gildernew MLA is currently taking forward a Private Members’ Bill to extend the threatened with homelessness window here to at least 60 days. While this won’t solve everything, this change, should it be agreed by the Assembly, would be an important step toward moving upstream to prevent homelessness.

Introduce a statutory duty to prevent homelessness

Currently, the Housing Executive only has a statutory duty to respond to homelessness once it happens. While they do provide advice and support to try and prevent it reaching this point, they have no statutory duty for prevention. With growing levels of homelessness, this means resources are most often directed to treat the crisis rather than to efforts to prevent it.  In contrast, other parts of the UK do have prevention duties for local housing authorities, meaning they are obliged by law to take reasonable steps to help people at risk of homelessness either remain in their current home or source alternative accommodation. The Housing Executive itself says that a statutory duty for prevention would help it better ringfence and direct resources to preventing homelessness in the first place, further strengthening the call for prevention to be a legal obligation, not an optional extra.

Make homelessness prevention a shared responsibility

Homelessness is rarely caused by a single issue so preventing it cannot be the responsibility of one department alone. It requires a joined-up approach across government and public services to spot risks early and respond effectively. Research by Crisis Scotland shows that people who end up homeless often have been in contact with an average of five public services in the weeks, months and years leading up to them losing their home. Services include housing, health, social services, justice and jobcentres showing the wide range of organisations who can play a role in identifying those at risk of homelessness. It is clear opportunities are being missed every day to save people from the personal cost and public services from the financial cost of homelessness. We need to see all government departments and public bodies step up and play their role in assessing people’s housing security and preventing homelessness before it takes hold.   

Turning recognition into action

The need to move upstream has been recognised by the Communities Minister who has publicly said that “we need to make the strategic shift to the prevention of homelessness”.

Now that recognition must be matched by action. Prevention saves people from the trauma of homelessness and improves long-term outcomes for people and families. Most importantly, it shows that homelessness is not inevitable and that we can choose to stop people being pushed into crisis in the first place.

Let's make 2026 the year Northern Ireland starts to make the shift upstream.

If you are experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless, call Simon Community’s 24/7 free Homeless Support Line on 0800 171 2222.

Cathy Brolly is Public Affairs and Policy Manager at Simon Community, Northern Ireland’s largest homelessness charity. She engages political decision-makers on housing and homelessness issues and advocates for evidence-based policy solutions grounded in lived experience to end homelessness in Northern Ireland. Prior to joining Simon Community, Cathy spent several years working for a health charity.