‘Housing crisis is hurting children’

Children are regularly treated as “passive spectators” in the debate on adequate housing in Ireland, a conference on homeless children in Galway heard yesterday.

Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, Dr Geoffrey Shannon warned of the effects emergency accommodation has on children’s rights.

He referred to part of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child where it describes how a child is deeply affected by being housed in emergency accommodation.