Rise in homelessness 'a shocking indictment of failed housing policy'

Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan. Picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Homelessness has surged back to pre-pandemic levels with 9,825 people requiring emergency accommodation in March, almost a third of whom were children.

The number of people without a home rose by 3.5% in March, prompting calls for the pandemic-era eviction ban to be reintroduced.

Of the 9,825 people homeless in March, 2,811 were children — a 30% increase in child homelessness.

The Monthly Homeless Report for March shows an increase of 333 people seeking emergency accommodation compared with February, bringing the total very close to the March 2020 figure of 9,905.

In March 2021, when rent freezes and an eviction ban combined to keep homelessness down, the number was just over 8,000. That compared to a month-by-month total of more than 10,000 for most of 2019.

The rise in homelessness comes as the Government is urgently seeking housing to accommodate up to 33,000 Ukrainian refugees expected to arrive in Ireland by the end of May.

It was announced earlier this week that 529 State-owned properties had been identified as options for mass housing of Ukrainian refugees, as hotel accommodation has reached capacity.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said the number gives “serious cause for concern”.

The figures have drawn stinging criticism from those in the homelessness sector and the Opposition.

Social Democrats housing spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan said the figures were “a shocking indictment of the government’s failed housing policy”, while Labour’s Rebecca Moynihan said they showed the need for a temporary ban on evictions. Ms Moynihan said that such a move had worked in the pandemic. 

Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin. Picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin echoed that call, and said urgent action is needed.

“Government’s failure to provide a sufficient level of new social housing, coupled with the shrinking private rental sector, is driving homeless presentations," he said.

Vacant possession notices to quit from landlords are responsible for more than half of all evictions. More families and single people are presenting as homeless and they are finding it harder to exit due to the lack of social or private rental accommodation.” 

Mr O’Brien said however that the Government was making “every effort” to bring numbers down.

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien: Government 'making every effort to reduce homelessness'. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

“The continuing increase in the numbers accessing emergency accommodation is a serious concern," he said.

"The Government, local authorities, and others are making every effort to reduce homelessness.” 

Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said that much of the increase over the last two years has been among single people and that the number of families homeless fell during the pandemic during the period the Government had banned no-fault evictions. 

However, he said the number of single people who are homeless continued to rise month after month during this time and is now at “unprecedented levels”.

Hitting a new unprecedented level of over 5,000 single people in emergency homeless accommodation in March should be a moment of national shame and deep reconsideration," he said. 

"When homelessness was first described as a ‘crisis’ by a Government minister in recent years, there were around 2,000 single people homeless, so it is hard to find language which describes our current situation. 

"Over the intervening years, we have been much better at building new homeless shelters than we have been at building new social homes, and that must change.”

Among the homeless adults recorded in March, some 4,957 (71%) were single adults and there were 1,238 families in emergency accommodation.

In Dublin, 413 families presented as homeless in the first three months of 2022, an increase of 8% on the 381 reported in the corresponding period in 2021. 

The new report shows that during Q1 2022, some 1,228 adults and their dependents exited, or were prevented from entering emergency accommodation, by way of a tenancy being created — a 3% increase.

Of those, 775 people exited emergency accommodation to private rented tenancies under the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme and 214 people exited homelessness to local authority homes.

The figures come as a report by housing policy analyst Lorcan Sirr revealed that just 175 social homes were built by the four Dublin local authorities last year, and none were built by Cork City Council.

While Cork City Council did not directly build social homes, the figures show that it did acquire 80 homes, while 49 were delivered by approved housing bodies and through Part V housing.

Mr Sirr said the State is now buying one in four new homes.

“At the same time we see the amount of houses being bought by first-time buyers is going down, and we see the number of housing coming for sale on the market has reduced considerably,” he said.