Housing homeless people needing emergency accommodation in glamping pods has been described by an assembly member as “inappropriate and unacceptable”.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive has confirmed four pods at a hotel facility near Belfast are used “occasionally and as a last resort”.

Alliance Party MLA Kellie Armstrong said placing people in pods shows how desperate Northern Ireland’s housing crisis had become.

The Housing Executive said the pods are “warm and comfortable… and tourist board approved”.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures, it seems, but glamping pods, honestly?” the Alliance MLA told BBC News NI.

“They are not appropriate and not acceptable,” she said.

“We are coming into winter. Can the Housing Executive guarantee these pods will cope with the changing weather, be able to cope with storms?”

A Housing Executive spokesperson said the pods are used only in the short term and are needed because of unprecedented demand for social housing.

The number of people placed in temporary accommodation had risen from 4,527 in 2020 to 16,943 in 2023, the spokesperson added.

The pods, they continued, are used to house “smaller households of single persons or couples presenting as homeless”.

“We only use this facility as a last resort when all other options are exhausted and for a short period of time while more suitable options closer to the presenter’s area of choice are secured,” the spokesperson said.

“The accommodation is warm and comfortable, with washing facilities included, and those placed there have full access to the hotel’s general facilities as normal guests.”

The housing body said people agree to be placed there, and the pods are used to allow people to be housed close to their families and only when “no other options are available”.

Armstrong said the use of hotels and bed and breakfasts as temporary accommodation has been well documented, but confirmation that glamping pods are now also being utilised “beggars belief”.

“The facilities cannot be great – facilities like washing machines and fridges. How close are these pods to the nearest shop?”

More than 30,000 households are currently registered as being homeless, according to Housing Executive figures, while the latest Stormont figures show that more than £34m was spent on temporary accommodation in Northern Ireland in the last financial year.

Providing more social, affordable, and sustainable housing is among the key priorities in the Stormont Executive’s draft programme for government.

Armstrong called for Stormont’s Communities Minister Gordon Lyons to bring the Housing Supply Strategy to the Executive as soon as possible.