State should help neediest but populist policies will not solve housing crisis or homelessness

Initiatives to address the housing crisis should be time-limited, properly costed and should not create long-term welfare dependence where it does not already exist, suggests John S Byrne.

EVERY time I turn on the news lately, I am reminded of the homelessness crisis.

The most recent statistics estimate that 8,000 people are homeless, 3,000 of them children.