Almost 26,000 households are on a waiting list for a Housing Executive home, the agency's chairman has said.

Speaking at the launch of the executive's 31st annual report on Wednesday, Sid McDowell said too many people continued to face housing hardship.

He said there had been a dramatic rise in the number of people presenting as homeless. The figure has risen 1,000 from last year to 14,000 households.

Housing facts

26,000 on waiting list for homes 14,000 homeless applications 5,000 homes sold to sitting tenants �30m spent on adaptions for vulnerable people Executive invested �240m in local economy NI's housing benefit budget totals �330m Executive manages 114,000 houses throughout NI

The executive has appealed to private developers to deliver affordable housing to first-time buyers.

"There can be no acceptable level of homelessness - to live without a home is to have a life half-lived," said Mr McDowell.

"The Housing Executive has been working with others to complete a major overhaul of homeless strategies and services in Northern Ireland.

"We recognise that the old ways of dealing with homelessness are no longer enough."

'Existing housing stock'

Social Development Minister Nigel Dodds is expected to launch a new homelessness strategy next month as part of an overall review.

Mr McDowell added: "We are working towards a homeless strategy that has the right mix of ingredients to help people avoid homelessness, to rescue people from homelessness and to sustain and support people to escape homelessness."

He said while it was important to build more homes, it was also essential to make better use of existing housing stock.

Segregated housing is wrong - it gets in the way of meeting housing need and it prevents the best use being made of existing housing and land

Sid McDowell Housing Executive

The problem was compounded by increasing levels of sectarianism within the housing sector, said the executive.

"My guess is that in terms of segregation and intimidation this has probably contributed between 10 and 15% to the homeless figure," said Mr McDowell.

"Recent research by the University of Ulster concludes the Housing Executive has neither created nor added to the problems of residential segregation in Northern Ireland."

The Housing Executive said it intended to use its land assembly powers to work with private developers to target investment towards urban areas.

The chairman said the past 12 months had been successful for the executive.

The social development minister said the report provided evidence more money was needed for housing.

Nigel Dodds said: "As this report outlines, we are working against a background of increasing numbers of homeless people, a rising waiting list and a substantial number of unfit homes."

However, Sinn Fein assembly member Mary Nelis said Mr Dodds's department had failed to deliver value for money in tackling the housing crisis.

"Reports have indicated that the housing budget is over-provided for to the tune of over �90m yet at the same time we are not meeting our housing needs," she said.