Hoteliers warning over use of rooms for homeless accommodation
The Dublin Region Homeless Executive has said its projected spend on hotel accommodation this year will be €4.5m — more than three times the €1.3m spent last year and multiples of the €455,000 spent in 2012.
Focus Ireland, which works with many families living in hotels in the capital, including one who told the Irish Examiner of their experience, have warned that families living in hotels are feeling the strain and that measures need to be taken to limit the amount of time they are required to live in hotel rooms.
Focus Ireland has also warned that the use of hotel accommodation could also become a feature in other cities, such as Cork and Limerick, due to a lack of alternatives and with the growth in the number of families falling into homelessness.
The Irish Hotels Federation said the arrangements in Dublin were directly between the hotels concerned and Dublin City Council and other local authorities, but warned it could not be depended upon in the longer term.
“The provision of this accommodation is handled directly between the local authorities and the individual hotels concerned and as such the IHF does not have statistics on the amount of accommodation being provided.
“However, we have been informed that local authorities are experiencing an unprecedented increase in the number of families who have lost their homes owing to rising rental costs in the city,” the IHF said.
The IHF expects homeless services will over time have access to a range of more permanent housing, reducing the need for hotel accommodation.
The Dublin Region Homeless Executive said: “The hotels involved have not ended the arrangement in terms of provision of emergency accommodation but it remains an unstable experience for the local authorities in terms of emergency placements as hotel bookings are not guaranteed and the local authorities are working with central government to have a dedicated building under the control of NAMA to be purchased to provide accommodation and a single assessment centre for homeless families. This is expected to be operational by the end of April 2015.”
Roughan McNamara of Focus Ireland, said: “The answer is not looking for more emergency accommodation on a long-term basis but ensuring delivery of housing to get people out of these situations and also taking the steps outlined in this release to deliver a viable rental market for all: Tenants and landlords.
“The reality is that 40 families are becoming homeless in Dublin every month and the Government could stop this from happening in many cases by sorting out the rental market as they have done in other countries.
Latest quarterly figures show 792 people in private emergency accommodation.
