‘I just want a place I can call home for my kids’

Aaron Mullan is a single father of two and has been homeless since 2023.

“Life changed very quickly. I became a single father of two,” he told BBC News NI.

Mr Mullan went to the Housing Executive and there was no permanent place for his family to go. He was kept in a hotel in Antrim for five weeks.

“We had to travel an hour and a half each way to school. This left us with no support and it cost £17 a day on public transport,” he said.

Mr Mullan said they had “very few facilities”, with no fridge and no cooking space.

“My youngest was still drinking from a bottle. I would buy fresh milk but there is no place to keep it.”

Mr Mullan and his children were eventually placed in temporary accommodation in Belfast in October 2023.

The Family Temporary Accommodation Service currently houses 27 adults and 42 children.

“I’m very fortunate to be here,” he said.

“Having my own cooking facilities felt like I’d won the lottery. I felt like I could enjoy life again.”

However, she said the stress of homelessness has had a significant impact on her two children.

“My daughter doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning,” he said.

“She is feeling frustrated and has no healthy way to express her feelings.

“It’s very confusing for him. You can’t organize his room for him.”

“If she wants a unicorn you can’t punish her. It’s like you’re living in an empty space. You still feel like a guest.”

Mr Mullan said he was worried about where he would be placed next.

“You don’t want to tell people that you live in a hostel because there’s that prejudgment, that stigma,” he said.

“There’s an inherent shame because in a way you’ve failed to give kids a safe place to live.”

Mr Mullan and his family are among the 58,000 people who are homeless in Northern Ireland.

The sector is under pressure – with groups supporting people experiencing homelessness saying their services need to be protected.

DePaul’s Bernadette Donaghy said having a home provides a sense of belonging and ownership.

“Families that come here to DePaul have been displaced from their families,” he said.

“They’re socially isolated. They don’t know the community, they don’t know where they’re being housed and that’s where DePaul comes in.”

Charlotte McKee and her son received help from DePaul’s family services. They had to move out of their rented accommodation due to mold problems.

“The landlord increased the rent and did not resolve the problems. I was not able to rent anywhere else so I declared myself homeless,” she said.

Ms McKee and her son, who has additional needs, were given temporary accommodation at a family service run by DePaul, 18 miles from her son’s school.

“Homelessness definitely affected my son. The way it manifests with my son is impulsive behavior, erratic behavior,” he said.

“Being homeless was really hard for him.”

Ms McKee traveled on public transport to and from her son’s school to “maintain some kind of continuity for him”.

One thought of uprooting his home life and then two of his school life. It made me feel like I was unworthy,” she said.

She and her son recently moved into permanent residence.

“I can really see that his behavior has improved and he’s a lot calmer,” she said.