Coalition urged to hike rent allowance

Rent allowance must be increased if the Government is serious about ending homelessness, opposition TDs insisted as the Dáil remembered the death of rough sleeper Jonathan Corrie.

Mr Corrie’s body was found in a doorway across the road from Leinster House last week and his death sparked a flurry of activity from ministers.

But TDs criticised the lack of action on rent allowance rates as they warned people are being priced out of the private sector and forced into emergency accommodation.

Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy welcomed the €20m initiative announced in the wake of Mr Corrie’s death, but said it did not go far enough. “When you cut rent allowance it has a drastic effect on someone who is reliant on that payment. In addition, banks have been heavy handed in evicting people from their homes.

“The buy-to-let market is so volatile that banks are moving in and landlords are left with no choice but to sell rented properties. That, in turn, is forcing people out into emergency accommodation.

“People from all walks of life are currently in emergency accommodation. Some of them are bedding down and sleeping on couches,” Mr Troy said.

Sinn Féin’s Jonathan O’Brien called for more help for people battling addiction. “We need to ensure that people who come out of rehab centres and who are trying to get their lives back on track have suitable and affordable accommodation available to them.

“That is not happening. Rents are running away from people. The rent allowance people get is not sufficient.”

Junior Social Protection Minister Kevin Humphreys said community welfare officers have been reminded they have powers to raise rent supplement in individual cases taking local market conditions into account.

“Using a broad stroke increasing rent allowance will probably not get anyone anywhere. We don’t want to write a blank cheque for landlords across the country,” he told RTÉ.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny described his tour of streets where people sleep rough in florid terms.

“In the early hours of Friday morning in the cold and rain I met alcoholics, drug addicts and returned emigrants. Some of them shook my hand and a young man thanked me for looking after his sleeping bag while he went to find and use facilities nearby.

“Rats skittering across sodden blankets, beds of needles. On our journey, people laughing, having the craic. Making the most of their night out, under Christmas lights, strung high on streets, over strung-out people.

“On Grafton Street, a Gucci sign beams over the remnants of humanity. Only ‘remnants’ is the wrong word. Because what I discovered that night was the richness of humanity.

“Both in the team who do this, night after night. And, signally, in the men and women, swaddled in their blue sleeping-bags, to whom they bring not only food, but company, comfort.

“I believe our homeless crisis is a kind of autopsy, of our national life, our priorities. Even when the Celtic Tiger was deafening, men and women were living and dying on our streets,” Mr Kenny said.