When Philip McAnallen lost his job at a Belfast haulage firm eight years ago, he ended up living on the streets.
Diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of four, the forklift driver suffered a seizure in work after being “clear” for 10 years and lost his licence immediately.
The Armagh-born man was no longer able to afford his private rental property and joined the spiralling waiting list for social housing in Northern Ireland.
“My partner of 15 years passed away and I ended up sleeping rough in Belfast for a few years before going into hostels. It was tough,” he says.
This morning, he is emptying an industrial-sized tin of baked beans into an enormous pot at the city’s only drop-in food centre for the homeless.
Almost 70 fries – or “healthy grills”, as chef Ta McFarland describes them – are served at The People’s Kitchen by 11am.
The charity is on the ground floor of a former Ulster Bank close to the city centre. Two old bank vaults are crammed with jumbo boxes of cereal, dried food, clean clothes, toiletries, trainers and schoolbags.
People sign in, with only their first name if they want – that’s all that is required – and the spotless breakfastroom is full by 10.15am.
“It keeps me busy, keeps my head clear, and I’ve met friends. I’d come in seven days a week if needed,” says McAnallen (43), who now lives in a social house but continues to volunteer.
[ An estimated 25,000 people in Northern Ireland experiencing hidden homelessnessOpens in new window ]
Outside, an ambulance is parked up on the pavement after paramedics were called earlier that morning to treat a homeless man with a head injury.
A Belfast health trust worker is also present to help a woman in crisis. “This place is a lifeline,” she is overheard remarking to a colleague.
Not everyone who uses the facility is a rough sleeper or suffers from addiction, says Paul McCusker, who founded The People’s Kitchen in 2016 and co-ordinates it daily. Every person coming through the door knows his name.
“We started off feeding 10 people a week and now we’re up to over 1,000 people a week using our services,” says McCusker, an A&E nurse and Belfast City councillor.
“That’s people in poverty, people on the street, people in temporary accommodation seeking advice about other services; others are lonely and come here for the social aspect.
“We have a young woman who has been in a hostel for three years and is a sub-teacher. Because she works, she has to pay rent. She can’t source private accommodation.”
Wraparound support – including link-ins with GPs and housing services – is also provided; one homeless man asks for help in filling out a form.
“There should be no need for The People’s Kitchen,” McCusker says. “But I’ve never seen the need as high. Everything’s changed since Covid and hasn’t gone back to the way it used to be.”
What McCusker is seeing on the ground is borne out by official data. Latest figures show there are 47,936 households on the social housing waiting list in Northern Ireland.
Soaring private rents are cited by one housing charity as among the top three reasons for forcing people into homelessness. Calls to its advice line have a “massive over-representation” in relation to private rentals.
“Chief among their concerns is affordability as people have experienced quite significant rent price rises,” says Stephen Morrison, policy co-ordinator at Housing Rights. “There’s also a big increase in people struggling to pay their mortgage and going through the courts to stop their homes being repossessed.”
We started off feeding 10 people a week and now we’re up to over 1,000 people a week using our services
— Paul McCusker
The average rent in Northern Ireland was £830 (€997) per month in 2023 – though Belfast rents can be much higher – compared with £664 (€796) per month in 2020, according to PropertyPal.
“So the average household is spending almost £2,000 more per year to keep a roof over their heads,” says Morrison.
“We’re seeing a cohort of low-income families and low-income renters who are either having to give up the tenancy or fall into arrears. Many are having to present as homeless,” he says.
“We basically don’t have enough social housing in Northern Ireland to deal with the people who are now on the list. At the higher end, more people are struggling to buy a home. So it’s created this supply and demand issue which we are seeing with these spiralling rates.”
The most telling statistic, according to the umbrella organisation representing the North’s homelessness sector, is the 145 per cent jump in the number of households who have “homelessness status”. In March, 2014, that figure was at 12,200 but by June this year, it rocketed to more than 30,000.
“It’s absolutely shocking and is strong evidence of a major challenge,” says Mark Baillie of Homeless Connect.
He pointed to the “grim milestone” of more than 5,000 children now living in temporary accommodation. Of those children placed in the North’s hostels and hotels, two-thirds are under the age of nine.
Severe shortages in Belfast’s temporary accommodation have resulted in some families being sent more than 60 miles away to hotels in Portrush and Derry, with 5am starts to get their children to school by public transport.
“We are talking about little children here sometimes being born into temporary accommodation, sometimes staying in it for multiple years, sometimes living with the stress and anxiety of not knowing where you’re going to be living,” says Baillie.
“The effects cascade out on to the education system and the health system. It’s a dire situation.”
Homelessness data from Northern Ireland and the Republic are not directly comparable due to significant legislative differences.
In the South, official homeless statistics record only the number of people in temporary accommodation. In the North, a points-based system is used to allocate social housing – the more points you have, the higher you are on the waiting list to get a home from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) or a housing association.
By law, it is mandatory for the NIHE to provide temporary accommodation to households that have homelessness status. Its chief executive Grainia Long warned last month that demand – there are 11,000 placements in temporary accommodation compared to 3,000 pre-pandemic – will impact on budgets to build social housing “at scale”.
Ms Long said she fully expects homelessness to increase and also warned of a “risk of death”. Her comments came after five people died in one week on Belfast’s streets in the summer. Their deaths followed an arson attack which destroyed a homeless centre in the city centre.
Earlier this month the Stormont Executive pledged to prioritise “more social, affordable and sustainable housing” in its draft Programme for Government.
It was the first time housing was made a standalone priority following extensive lobbying by housing bodies.
The development followed an outcry in July over proposed budgetary cuts which meant only 400 new social homes would be built in 2024-25 rather than the target of 2,000.
Housing organisations welcomed the draft programme as a “significant moment” for the sector.
The document is out to consultation and Mark Baillie said his organisation, in its submission, will be asking for “delivery in the medium to long-term”.
“This will be one of the ways in which the Executive is judged. There’s a recognition now that we have a major problem.”
Back at the The People’s Kitchen, a pork bolognese is bubbling on a low heat and the charity’s volunteer chef is about to dish 70 portions into plastic containers to deliver on the streets that evening. Bags with packets of Tayto, chocolate bars and a fruit drink are also sorted.
By 12.30pm, Philip McAnallen has returned from Portadown, where he accompanied a driver on the “bread run”. Their van is packed with loaves donated by a bakery.
“Paul (McCusker) has told me off for trying to do too much, but I want to be here,” he says. “This is the only place I have to keep me going.”
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