One in five fear losing their home

The Simon Communities has sounded a warning call about a growing fear of homelessness among people struggling to meet mortgage and rental payments.

The nationwide housing charity said one in four people are now worried about the possibility of becoming homeless because of struggles to meet house payments, while one in five fear losing their home.

The warning came ahead of the charity’s annual Simon Week, which begins on September 29, and which this year has the theme ‘Stand and Deliver’ — an explicit call on the Government to bring in measures that will ensure Ireland meets its target of ending long-term homelessness by 2016.

The campaign comes amid rising concern among housing organisations over the growing number of people at risk of homelessness.

A squeezed private rental market, caused by rising rents and inadequate supply, as well as households in mortgage arrears and fearing home repossession, are just two of the factors pushing many people to the brink, according to Niamh Randall, Simon’s national spokesperson.

“The fact that we have people sleeping on our streets and in emergency provision accommodation, in 2014, in Ireland, is not acceptable,” Ms Randall said.

She said the 2016 target was “still possible” but needed the Government to stand over its commitment. That meant increasing rent supplement levels in the next budget. It has to happen, she said, as well as the introduction of some level of rent control to provide “certainty within tenancies”.

She said there was “no easy answers” but measures introduced now, along with a commitment to provide more social housing and allow quicker turnaround of tenancies in ‘void’ or empty properties, would make a difference.

Simon said that the crisis was being experienced around the country, stating that in Cork, the number of people sleeping rough increased by 134% from August 2013 to August 2014, and, in Galway, there was a 57% increase in people turning to prevention services.

In the north west, tenancy sustainment services worked with more people in the first half of this year than in the whole of 2013.

Figures indicating the percentage of people fearing either homelessness or losing their home came from the Irish Charity Engagement Monitor Study for Spring 2014. In all, 2,600 people were polled.

Simon is calling on the public to sign its letter to Cabinet urging action on the crisis. The organisation has demanded common sense solutions, such as an effective ‘housing-led approach’ which means more of the right kind of housing being provided, adequate support services, and preventing homelessness before it happens.