Record number of families made homeless in Dublin
Homeless groups and charities have described the figures as “shocking” and “extremely alarming”.
According to the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE), 134 families (with 269 children) became homeless in the capital in January — the highest figure for any month on record. Of these, 125 had never been homeless before.
The previous highest monthly figure was 84 families in August 2015. The latest figure is a 148% rise on January 2015 when 54 families were homeless in Dublin.
The number of families in emergency accommodation now stands at 769, which includes some 1,570 children.
Focus Ireland director of advocacy, Mike Allen, said the figures showed that the so-called recovery has not reached large swathes of communities and people.
“The continued massive rise in family homelessness is due to the prolonged crisis in the private rented sector. One key aspect of this crisis is lending agencies foreclosing on buy-to-let landlords and then evicting the tenants.”
“The repossession of buy-to-let landlords, often by banks owned by the Irish people, is a growing phenomenon and may account for up to half the recent cases of family homelessness,” he said.
Focus Ireland said that, despite this issue being included in the Government’s “20 point plan” on homelessness in December 2014, no response whatsoever has been put in place to deal with the issue.
Sam McGuinness from the Dublin Simon Community described the figures as “shocking” and said there needed to be a move away from emergency, short-term responses which are now becoming long-term realities.
“We urgently need to move away from an emergency-led response as we cannot keep offering people short-term solutions that have now become long term.
“Providing people with the support to stay in their homes, together with ensuring the provision of affordable housing with support to move them out of homelessness, will be the only way we are going to solve this crisis long term,” he said.
Pat Doyle, the chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust, described the figures as “very concerning” and said if they were repeated or even exceeded on a monthly basis throughout the year, “the consequences would be enormous”. “The statement from the DRHE clearly points out that rent supplement rates must be raised with immediate effect. Efforts to prevent homelessness must be immediately ramped up and all necessary resources made available to prevent individuals, couples and families from becoming homeless,” he said.
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