Income, poverty and affordable housing at the root of homelessness

Family homelessness has risen 200% since 2011 and 55% of homeless people are in the labour force. Key to this is the need for adequate incomes, local authority housing and an affordable, secure private rental market, writes Niamh Randall.

Every month we hear new statistics for the number of people who are living in emergency accommodation and every month they increase to quite shocking levels.

Yesterday, the CSO published ‘Census 2016 Profile 5: Homeless Persons in Ireland’ giving us a sense of the real people behind the statistics. It told us of the very damaging impact of austerity and the recession and clearly demonstrates that structural inequality and poverty are at the root of homelessness.