In NI as a whole, at least 88,605 people – or 49,083 households – were on the social housing waiting list at end March 2025 (up from 48,366 households at end September 2024, here). 

Over three quarters of waiting list households across the north (37,635 of them) were considered by the Housing Executive to be in ‘housing stress’. This is a 7.5% increase on the figure cited in NI’s Programme for Government 2024-2027, which was 35,000 households experiencing housing stress (p. 42).

Nearly two thirds of waiting list households -- 31,719 in total – were officially recognised as homeless at end March 2025 (up from 30,658 six months before). These homeless households included at least 20,135 children under the age of 18 (a new high, and an increase from 19,700 six months before). 

In Belfast, at end March 2025 there were 13,524 households (comprising at least 23,488 people) on the social housing waiting list (up from 13,060 six months before).  Of these, 11,203 households were considered to be in housing stress, a rise of 4.6% on the figure of 10,712 households six months before.

End March 2025 saw 9,975 Belfast households officially recognised as Full Duty Applicant homeless (rising from 9,453 at end September 2024). Of these, 23.6% (2,354 FDA households) were in North Belfast, while 35.4% were in West (3,533 FDA households) and the remaining 41% were reported in the Housing Executive’s ‘South and East Belfast’ area.

Belfast’s homeless households included at least 6,031 homeless children under 18 at end March 2025. This level of child homelessness is unprecedented in Belfast: six months before it had stood at 5,780 children.

The highest concentration of homeless children was in West Belfast: 41.7% of Belfast’s total, or at least 2,514 children at end March 2025. Another 23.2% of Belfast’s homeless children (at least 1,400 of them) lived in North Belfast, with the remainder (2,117 homeless children, or 35.1% of Belfast’s total) reported as living in the Housing Executive’s ‘south and east Belfast’ area.