€46m for housing projects to tackle crisis

Ministers responded to criticism that they have failed to get a grip on the homelessness crisis by announcing €46m in special accommodation projects.

The money will fund 416 accommodation units for the elderly, people with an intellectual or physical disability, and the homeless.

The move comes after a number of charities, including Barnardos, demanded the Government do more to deal with rising numbers of families being left without a home.

About €19m will go to provide 187 dwelling units for homeless families.

The Dublin area will receive a €10m fund to acquire 66 units for homeless people.

Housing Minister Jan O’Sullivan said: “This initiative will have an immediate effect in Dublin City which has the greatest number of people currently experiencing homelessness.

“The balance of the €46m, around €16.7m, will fund the delivery of 163 units to accommodate persons with a disability and older persons in various locations around the country.

“These 163 new permanent housing units are intended, in the main, to provide accommodation for people with special needs including older people and people with a disability.”

Independent TD Catherine Murphy said the move was “haphazard and insufficient”.

“I urge the minister to look outside of Dublin, to look beyond short-term emergency accommodation, and to recognise the need, identified in their own housing agencies’ report, for over 5,000 housing units per year and rising,” she said.

“Choosing to ignore the very obvious problems caused by the inflexible rent caps is a huge oversight and I simply don’t believe that the initiatives announced by the minister will accomplish the goal of providing sufficient solutions to the crisis.”

Cork County Council is to receive €3.3m to create 27 units. Kerry County Council is to receive €500,000 for four units. Limerick is to get €1.4m for 11 units, while Tipperary will build units with €500,000 in funding.

The move follows warnings that a generation of children could grow up in emergency accommodation because of a new wave of family homelessness due to the housing crisis.

Barnardos said the housing crisis could become a “full-blown epidemic” with families living in hotels and emergency accommodation, and children having to switch schools because their families have to move areas due to rising rents.

The charity said the situation was most acute in Dublin, but areas like Cork, Limerick, and Thurles were similarly affected.

Opposition parties attacked the Government for dragging its feet over the growing crisis during its first three years in power.

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