The extreme weather conditions we experienced at the start of 2025 triggered PPR to FOI the NIHE about their plan for supporting homeless people in such events. Via FOI response 619 of 6 January 2025, the Housing Executive provided a copy of its Severe Weather Emergency Protocol, available here.

The SWEP is “an outline of arrangements to ensure availability of accommodation to people sleeping rough when there is an increased risk of death due to the weather”, focused mainly on Belfast and Derry. The ‘baseline trigger’ for the protocol is when the temperature drops to 0 degrees, though regard is also paid to Met Office weather warnings and there are some provisions for instances of extreme heat.

In case of severe weather, the SWEP mandates that NIHE identify “additional provision [of temporary accommodation] to assist for the period during which a SWEP is to be implemented” for eligible rough sleepers. 

Some rough sleepers have No Recourse to Public Funds – usually they are people who are “subject to immigration control and have no entitlement to welfare benefits or public housing” according to the No Accommodation Network (NACCOM). For this group, the SWEP guidance says that “assistance will instead focus on support provided by charitable organisations”.

By a separate FOI, the Housing Executive informed that the SWEP was implemented 19 times in 2024: 6 in January, 1 in February, 7 in November and 5 in December.

By contrast, the SWEP was implemented each of the first ten days of January 2025, the point at which the information was compiled; it will also have been implemented numerous times in the weeks since then. 

Elsewhere in the UK, other devolved authorities have been more proactive in setting out the supports they can offer people designated by the Home Office as having No Recourse to Public Funds – and not just in times of severe weather. In Scotland, guidance from the COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) Strategic Migration Partnership, for instance, describes the “wide range of services available for people living in Scotland that are not classed as public funds for immigration purposes” including:

• “Local authorities have the discretion to provide free school meals … and school uniform grants to children in low-income families that do not meet eligibility requirements due to the parent’s immigration status.”

• “Many NHS services in Scotland are provided free of charge regardless of a person’s immigration status.”

• “Social services’ duties to safeguard the welfare of children, young people leaving care and vulnerable adults may be engaged in order to alleviate destitution when a person or family is prevented by their immigration status from accessing social security benefits and requires accommodation and financial support.”

Similarly, guidance from the government of Wales outlines their commitment to improve outcomes for all people seeking sanctuary, including those with No Recourse to Public Funds as part of their Nation of Sanctuary: Refugee and Asylum Seeker Plan (January 2019). A full list of benefits that can and cannot be accessed by a person subject to NRPF can be located under the section Access to Services Welfare Benefits, including specific supports for victims of domestic or gender-based violence, pregnant women and children (with particular additional supports to unaccompanied children and care leavers).  

Unlike their counterparts in Scotland and Wales, the devolved NI administration however does not appear to have published such guidance. As the frequency of extreme weather events increases due to climate collapse, NIHE and other statutory organisations must ensure they are adequately prepared to protect people sleeping rough, particularly those currently excluded from accessing public funds as part of wider policies of hostility and harm.