The Strangford MLA was speaking after meeting Homeless Connect, an organisation which works to tackle the issue, as well as a number of people who have experienced homelessness.

“It is clear that the number of people finding themselves homeless is rising. With more private landlords leaving the sector and investment to build new homes not enough to reach targets, Northern Ireland has a shortfall in the number of homes needed to meet the growing demand,” she said.

“As a result, people are unable to access appropriate accommodation, leaving many families in housing crisis.

“This meeting allowed us to meet some people with a lived experience of homelessness, who it was clear had been let down by a lack of housing. If we are to end the vicious cycle of the housing crisis, we need to invest in preventing it by delivering a supply of appropriate homes. Currently too much is spent on temporary accommodation, while cutting financial support to the voluntary and community sector, which delivers emergency housing support.

“We should not have almost 27,000 households on the waiting list for social housing in Northern Ireland, nor should there be almost 7,000 homeless children. We are currently in Homelessness Awareness Week, which is an important method of increasing understanding about homelessness. However, it’s clear that getting a restored and functioning Executive would be the most effective action we could take to properly tackle the issue.”