• The latest figures from the Department for Communities indicate that this is correct.
  • In a June update, DfC stated that 5,106 children are currently living in temporary accommodation. This figure has more than doubled over the past five years.
  • A total of 1,818 of those children are aged 0-4, making up 35.6% of all children in temporary housing. This can be acceptably rounded up to 40%.

On June 28, in a post on social media, solicitor and political commentator, Sarah Creighton claimed:

“In Northern Ireland, 5106 children are living in temporary accommodation. 40% of them are aged 0-4.”

This is backed by evidence.

Recent figures published by the Department for Communities (DfC) indicate this is accurate.

DfC produces a report every six months which includes data about the number of children in Northern Ireland living in temporary accommodation.

This number has been on the rise since the start of 2019 – and has more than doubled in that time.

For more information, read on.

  • Source

FactCheckNI contacted Ms Creighton, who pointed us in the direction of this 13 June press release from local organisation Homeless Connect.

That press release cites new information published by the Department for Communities (DfC), which it says indicate that:

“[In] April this year there were 5,106 children living in in [sic] temporary accommodation. The largest proportion of these children were aged 0-5 (40%).”

The first part of this reflects the original claim, while the second differs slightly – suggesting that 40% of children in temporary accommodation are aged 0-5 rather than 0-4.

But does this reflect what the data says?

  • Department

The DfC’s latest figures were also published on 13 June, in one of its biannual bulletins on homelessness.

The data tables accompanying this press release state that, in April of this year, a total of 5,106 children were living in temporary accommodation. This confirms the claim.

The same table also includes some extra information on the ages of the children involved. Currently 465 children in temporary accommodation are under the age of one, while another 1,353 are aged 1-4.

This means 1,818 children aged 0-4 are in temporary accommodation, which is 35.6% of the total. This can acceptably be rounded up to 40% and therefore supports the original claim.

* Note: that this age differentiation – 0-4 years – reflects the original claim better than the Homeless Connect press release, which cites a statistic for children aged 0-5. The age brackets used by DfC are 0-1, 1-4, 5-9, 1-15, and 16 and 17.

  • Wider context

DfC figures show that the number of children living in temporary accommodation has risen steadily over the past half decade.

Every approximately six-monthly update in that period has documentedan increase in the overall number, which has risen from 2,433 in January 2019 to the latest figure of 5,106.

Homeless Connect illustrated this with a graph in their recent press release:

Figure 1 – source: Homeless Connect