Fr Peter McVerry: 500,000 affected by housing crisis

Half a million people in Ireland either have no home or are “seriously distressed” about their housing situation, anti-homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry has claimed.

“That has to be a matter of concern for our Government,” said Fr McVerry when he joined trade unionists, housing advocates, community and campaign leaders to call for a radical shift in housing policy.

He reckoned there were “tens of thousands” of people, particularly families, living in overcrowded accommodation because they did not want to be included on the homeless register.

There were three-bedroomed houses with four generations of one family living there. Adults who had now reached their 40s were living with their parents because they could not afford to move out.

Fr McVerry said there was an unknown number of people living in “appalling quality” private accommodation who feared they would be thrown out if they complained.

People were struggling to pay their rent and worried sick that it would increase to a level they could no longer afford while those with hefty mortgages were too afraid to talk to their lenders.

I would guesstimate at a very conservative level that there are half a million people who either have no home or whose housing is causing them serious distress,” he said.

There were 43,000 mortgages in arrears of more than two years and in the short or medium term many of the houses were going to be repossessed and the occupants evicted.

“If even a fraction of those people become homeless this country will not be able to cope. We will end up with families living on the streets,” he said.

“We have a crisis today that I believe could get much, much worse and the Government have their head in the sand. They don’t have a policy that is actually working.”

Irish Congress of Trade Unions president Sheila Nunan said three-quarters of young workers had little or no confidence in being able to buy a home in the future should they wish to.

“That is an inter-generational inequity that none of us can live with,” said Ms Nunan, when she launched the Raise the Roof initiative in Dublin yesterday.

Ms Nunan said ICTU had organised a special rally on Wednesday, October 3 outside Leinster House to support an opposition party motion due to be debated in the Dáil on the same day.

She said the motion supported by Sinn Féin, People before Profit, the Labour Party, Solidarity, the Social Democrats, Green Party and Independents4Chang reflected ICTU’s Charter for Housing Rights.

Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin said about 40 TDs had worked on the cross-party motion that calls on the Government to declare a housing emergency, substantially increase investment in social and affordable housing, and establish a legal right to housing.

ICTU general secretary Patricia King said Congress had contacted every TD and senator about their Charter but some did not want to engage with them.

“There are people in the Oireachtas who thought it was quite acceptable not to speak to a very large representative group about the housing crisis,” she said.