Calls to prioritise families amid lifting of eviction ban

One Family chief executive Karen Kiernan labelled the perceived lack of action during the eviction ban period as 'a missed opportunity'. File Picture

Parents and children must be prioritised in the coming months following the decision to lift the eviction ban, according to a charity and support group for one-parent families.

One Family chief executive Karen Kiernan said families had been dreading the lifting of the ban and anticipated homelessness figures to become “much worse” over the coming months.

Ms Kiernan said now the ban is set to lift on March 31, she is already hearing of families in imminent danger of losing their homes.

“We know that families are absolutely in dread of this happening, there are families who know that they are going to be evicted once the ban is lifted and they know that they have nowhere to go,” she said.

Ms Kiernan labelled the perceived lack of action during the eviction ban period as “a missed opportunity”.

“When the eviction ban was in place over the past couple of years, that was the time for the Government to really push and have alternative solutions and alternative homes,” she said.

Despite homelessness figures rising throughout the eviction ban period, Ms Kiernan believes the numbers would have been far higher without it.

“It has been very helpful — the figures haven’t been as high as we would have thought they would be so we can now expect them to go very high.

“If we know that is going to happen, what solutions can we have in place? what can the Government do to ensure that families don’t end up homeless,” she said.

For years, Ms Kieran said One Family had been calling on the Government to prioritise families living in emergency accommodation, saying there must be a limit in place in terms of the amount of time a child can spend in emergency accommodation before getting them into long-term permanent housing.

“That prioritisation is not happening so children are being condemned to living in very poor conditions, unable to have a social life or family life,” she said.

Ms Kiernan said children having adverse experiences while they are developing “stays with them for a lifetime”. 

“That’s why it is so important to minimise those adverse experiences and unfortunately, in many ways, the State is contributing to them.

One-parent families, mostly mothers with one or two children make up 55% of homeless families nationally, and that’s appalling.

“If you have one parent with the potential of one income, sometimes you may not even have a full income, you are not able to afford housing in Ireland and you’re not able to compete with people,” she said.

One Family, along with several other organisations, have been calling for a family homelessness strategy which is “urgently needed”.

“Otherwise, we’re just condemning children to live in appallingly stressful circumstances and it’s going to be another scandal of the future,” Ms Kiernan said.

Meanwhile, Limerick homeless charity Novas head of advocacy Una Burns said she was “surprised” and “deeply concerned” at the decision to end the ban.

“The biggest concern for us is the people who are facing eviction are coming into a sector that is absolutely at capacity, all our services in Dublin, Limerick, Clare, Cork, and Kerry are at capacity every single night of the week,” she said.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One, Ms Burns said she expected significant numbers of additional people to become homeless next month, including families and older people who have lived in their homes for “a very long time”.