'Urgent action' needed after council area records highest death rate among homeless

FORMER Mayor and Sinn Féin councillor, Sandra Duffy, says council and government must take “urgent action” on homelessness, as the Derry City and Strabane District had the highest recorded death rate among homeless people in 2024.

At December’s council meeting of the local authority, councillor Duffy brought members’ attention to the recent Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) report on Deaths of Homeless People in Northern Ireland, covering 2020 to 2024, which stated that there were an estimated 58 registered deaths of people experiencing homelessness in Northern Ireland in 2024.

Across the 11 local government districts the estimated mortality rate was highest in Derry City and Strabane with 11.41 deaths per 100,000 of population aged 15 to 74, compared to the Northern Ireland average of 4.11 per 100,000.

Councillor Duffy described the figures as “nothing short of heart breaking” and said the deaths were “not just statistics”, but “fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters whose lives ended far too soon and far too alone”.

“This must be a moment of collective resolve for us,” she added.

“We need urgent action on prevention, housing supply, addiction, support, and mental health services and we need it now.”

“Homelessness isn’t inevitable, it is preventable but only if we all work together across government, charities, community groups, and every part of society to provide safety dignity and real support.

“As a council, we have established a health inequalities and homelessness group and we have also passed a motion calling for a better-resourced homeless health team, so it would be good if we can hear back from the Minister in relation to that.

“We have also prioritised vulnerable people within our city centre as part of the new Pride and Place programme and I think that we need to be putting all that on record, because as a council area we are working to try and address some of these issues, but we probably need to work faster and a bit harder.

“Thirteen deaths in this council area is far too high, one death is too high when it is preventable.”