NIHE data shows that between December 2019 and March 2021, the number of children in North Belfast families on the waiting list grew by 16%, from at least 937 to at least 1,086. There were over four times as many children from predominately Catholic North Belfast 1 area in households on the waiting list as in predominately Protestant North Belfast 2.

The chart below includes matching data sets from 2019 and 2021, giving the lowest possible estimate of the number of children in each category according to NIHE family type definitions.

As shown, between December 2019 and end March 2021, the number of North Belfast children in households in ‘housing stress’ grew by nearly a fifth, from at least 698 to at least 833.  There were nearly seven times as many children from North Belfast 1 in ‘housing stress’ households as in the adjacent North Belfast 2.

The number of children in FDA homeless families rose by nearly a quarter – from at least 570 in December 2019 to at least 710 in March 2021. There were nearly eight times as many children from North Belfast 1 in FDA homeless families as in North Belfast 2.