Lone parents ‘falling down housing list’

ALMOST half of households on local authority housing waiting lists throughout the country are headed by a lone parent.

Frances Byrne, director of One Parent Exchange Network (OPEN) which represents 78 lone parent groups said: "Lone parents are going to keep on falling down the lists because of the way housing need is measured and the type of housing being built."

One way of dealing with the problem was to increase the points according to the length of time households are on the waiting list. Ms Byrne said lone parents had to wait between eight and 10 years for a local authority home.

About half of lone parents on waiting lists get a rent supplement.

"We suspect that there are a lot of lone parents on the lists who are living with their parents or with brothers and sisters and that is not necessarily the best place for them to be," she said.

And, she said, the situation was not helped by people not prepared to face up to the fact it was lone parents who had fallen furthest behind everyone else since the housing crisis began.

"We are talking about a cohort of the population that isn't thought to be a voting bloc but we are changing all that," she stressed.

Since 2003, 26 lone parent trainers have been rolling out a voting programme developed by OPEN.

"It is non-party political. We are simply encouraging people to get out and vote for the candidates that will back the issues they consider to be the most important," said Ms Byrne.