Families on streets at crisis level, says charity

The homelessness crisis must be treated as a national emergency, according to the housing charity Focus Ireland, as figures show that families accessing homeless services reached a critical level last month.

The charity blames the Government’s refusal to raise rent supplements as the major cause of the current crisis.

Its figures show that 1,300 children and their families are homeless nationwide — with more than 1,100 of these children in Dublin.

In a statement, a spokesperson said homelessness “now seems to reach a new crisis point every month”.

In the first seven months of the year 466 families became homeless, almost as many as those who ended up on the streets for the whole of last year.

In July alone, 77 families, including 155 children, became homeless in Dublin, 70 of whom had never been homeless before.

The charity said the crisis is spreading nationwide, with families struggling in emergency accommodation in counties including Cork, Limerick, and Kilkenny.

Focus Ireland said that the homelessness crisis could be solved if it was made a priority by the Government and said it must be treated as a national emergency.

It said the Government’s policy of refusing to raise rent supplement has played a “massive role”in creating the current crisis.

The charity’s director of advocacy, Mike Allen, said: “The Government needs to send a clear directive to all local authorities that where a family is assessed as homeless they must be found emergency accommodation for the night.

“The Government needs to fund the costs arising from this separately from the annual homelessness budget. There are rightly very stringent laws to protect all children right across society but yet there are currently no laws in place to make sure some State body has 100% responsibility to ensure no children or families are forced to sleep on our streets.

“The Taoiseach said on Sunday that families having to stay in hotel rooms is unacceptable. The truth is that now some families can’t even get a hotel room for the night. The very idea that a number of children have had to sleep rough in our capital city is a disgrace and a failure by the Government.”

Mr Allen said homeless people were capable of earning antheir own incomeand supporting themselves, if given the opportunity. “Most of them aren’t working but were working in the past. The first solution to their situation is they need a home, and the next thing they need is a job. So if we put them out in some ghost estate in Leitrim, we’re saying: ‘we’re giving you a house, but that’s the end of any sort of future you have’.”

The Department of the Environment said it is aware of the increase in the number of families who accessed homeless services last month and said the issue is a priority for minister Alan Kelly. In a statement, the department said a range of measures, including public awareness campaigns and tenancy protection services, are underway.

The Simon Community and Threshold have also criticised the Government’s response to the new figures.

Speaking on RTÉ, Simon Community spokeswoman Niamh Randall, said the Government’s range of measures were not enough.

and urgent action was needed: “What I had hoped to hear today was some immediate response to the crisis which is worsening by the day all around the country and it’s not there.”

Bob Jordan, Threshold CEO, said the Department of Social Protection should connect rents to the cost of living or the consumer price index. He said rent regulation was needed so landlords cannot increase rents to negate any riincrease in rent supplements.