Newly recognised refugees and FDA homeless status: ‘no change in policy’ – but change nonetheless
The percentage of new refugee households denied FDA status in 2025/26 rose to well over double that of the previous year; with the Housing Executive saying its guidance has not changed, it is unclear why.
In January 2026, PPR submitted this Freedom of Information request to the Housing Executive:
We have noted NI Assembly question AQW 35016/22-27 of 7 November 2025 from MLA Matthew O'Toole:
“To ask the Minister for Communities whether his Department instructed the Housing Executive to remove priority need status for single refugees seeking temporary accommodation.”
We have also noted Minister's response of 9 January 2026:
“Priority Need is defined in Article 5 of the Housing (NI) Order, 1988. This has not changed. The Department has not issued any new guidance or direction in relation to the definition of priority need.”
We wish to understand this issue further. To that end, please indicate:
Whether the Housing Executive has itself developed, issued or disseminated any new or updated guidance or direction in relation to the definition of priority need or any other of the 4 tests for Full Duty Applicant status, for all applicants or general or for any particular group of applicants (eg newly recognised refugees who are single and male)
If so, please provide a copy of the new or updated guidance or direction that has been developed, issued or disseminated.
The response came in (an unprecedented) just four days later:
“The Housing Executive can confirm that is has not developed, issued, or disseminated any new or updated guidance or direction in relation to the definition of priority need or any other of the 4 tests for Full Duty Applicant status, for all applicants or general or for any particular group of applicants (e.g. newly recognised refugees who are single and male). This concludes our response.”
At the same time, another MLA (Diane Forsyth) submitted AQW 37969/22-27 to the Communities Minister asking for an assessment of “the impact of housing pressures, arising from issues concerning asylum seeker homelessness, on existing households in need of housing.”
Minister Lyons’ 27 January 2026 response to her echoed the substance of the one PPR had received from the Housing Executive a week earlier, indicating that “if an asylum seeker is granted leave to remain, the Housing Executive will consider their application and homelessness risk like any other client group.”
The Minister added:
“during 2024/25, of the 15,905 households who presented as homeless, 660 (4%) presented as No Accommodation in Northern Ireland, Section S95 and, of the 10,855 accepted as homeless, 589 (5%) were recorded as No Accommodation in Northern Ireland, Section S95.”
He referred to the tables associated with the DFC’s Homelessness Bulletin.
Interestingly, a review of the most current Bulletin, released in June, seems to reveal a shift, if not in policy, at least in outcomes. Comparison of table 1.1E, ‘Households presenting as homeless: No Accommodation in Northern Ireland’, against table 2.1E, ‘Households accepted as homeless: No Accommodation in Northern Ireland’, show very different results in 2025/26 from the preceding year.
In 2024/25, 15,905 households presented as homeless and 10,855 were accepted.
In 2025/26, 16,085 households presented as homeless (an increase of 180) and very nearly the same number as the preceding year -- 10,852 -- were accepted.
In the January 2026 AQW response Minister Lyons was correct in pointing out that effectively, only 71 out of 660 former asylum seeker (now recognised refugee) households presenting as homeless to the Housing Executive in 2024/25 -- 10.8% --were denied Full Duty Applicant status.
The 2025/26 figures however show that the number of newly recognised refugees presenting as homeless rose by a quarter, to 830; yet the number of FDA grants among this group – like the number of FDA grants overall -- remained static (at 590 for new refugees, against 589 the preceding year). Given the increase in new refugees presenting, this means that the percentage of new refugee households denied FDA status more than doubled – to 28.9%.
* The note to the Housing Executive’s “No accommodation in NI: section 95” category – used in Homelessness Bulletin tables 1.1E and 2.1E – says “those presenting for this reason will generally be former asylum seekers who have been provided with a decision on their application.”
The jump from 10.8% of these homelessness applications being denied one year to 28.9% denied the next may not be due to an explicit change in policy. The question remains: what explains it?