Lifting eviction ban will 'turn on the tap into homelessness', housing charity warns

Conference heard the 'breathing space' of an eviction ban must be used to provide solutions to the problems, such as addressing the exodus of landlords from the market, having sufficient emergency accommodation capacity in place and long-term housing solutions for such individuals and families. 

Lifting the eviction ban will “turn on the tap into homelessness and make an absolutely shameful situation even worse”, the Focus Ireland chief executive has said.

Opening a conference in Dublin on Tuesday, Pat Dennigan said the no-fault eviction ban had seen the rate at which families entered homelessness slow and down and had helped to “stem the tide”.

“I have heard some commentary that the eviction ban ‘hasn’t worked’ because homelessness has gone up during that period since it was introduced in October 2022 — but that analysis totally ignores the facts before our very eyes,” he said.

The reason homelessness has risen and we fear will continue to rise for the foreseeable future, unfortunately, is because there is currently no route out of homelessness for the people in emergency accommodation.” 

Mr Dennigan was addressing officials from a number of organisations including approved housing bodies, local authorities and the Department of Housing discussing how to activate uncommenced planning permissions across the country.

He was speaking after it had emerged the Government had decided not to extend the eviction ban beyond the end of March, following meetings between the coalition leaders and Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien.

According to the latest Department of Housing figures, the number of people in emergency accommodation reached a new record high for the seventh month in a row in January, with the total figure now at 11,754 people.

UCD professor of social policy Dr Michelle Norris told the conference the duration of the eviction ban was very limited in terms of what could be achieved in that time.

“I think one of the challenges is what the State can do within six months is very limited for practical reasons,” she said.

Dr Norris said it takes an average of over five years to turn around a new development for social housing from beginning to end and “there’s a certain lack of reality about what we can do quickly”.

But, she said, “one of the few options available” was to intervene to ramp up delivery of unactivated planning permissions.

Mr Dennigan said the “breathing space” of an eviction ban must be used to provide solutions to the problems, such as addressing the exodus of landlords from the market, having sufficient emergency accommodation capacity in place and long-term housing solutions for such individuals and families.

“When issues like that have been addressed, we believe it is only then that Government can lift the eviction ban," he said.