Proposed cuts to the social housing budget will cost the Northern Ireland economy around stg£150 million (€210m) and put more than 3,000 construction jobs at risk, it was claimed today.
The Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations said the North's social housing crisis is set to deepen if the Assembly's draft budget is approved as it stands.
More than 36,000 people are currently on the waiting list for affordable homes. This will soar if the budget is rubber stamped, the federation claimed.
It said the construction industry will also lose out on an estimated £66 million (€92) per annum.
Social Development minister Margaret Ritchie has hit out at the proposed allocation, which would see her department's operating budget cut by 5 per cent and its capital spend by 63 per cent.
Finance minister Peter Robinson's draft budget is currently under consultation. The final version is due to be agreed early in the new year.
A recent review of affordable housing provision, carried out by Sir John Semple, recommended that 10,000 new low-cost homes be built over the next five years.
The federation, which represents 43 housing associations across Northern Ireland, said the target may be unobtainable in light of the proposed budget for 2008.
Chief executive Chris Williamson has written to Assembly members urging them to support the call for more investment in social housing.
"Right now housing associations can clinch realistic deals with landowners and developers to add to the social housing stock," he said.
"However, the NI Housing Executive is having to apply the brakes to many proposed schemes because they may not be able to pay the grant contribution for them in the next financial year.
"This window of opportunity is rare but is being stymied by a real cash crisis.
Housing associations need cash now to help avoid a nightmare scenario in which the shortage of social housing becomes worse instead of better."