12,000 households contact Threshold amid fears of homelessness

The report said: 'In 2022, Threshold supported an additional 71 households to avail of an uplift in their rent supplement payment... thereby enabling these households to avoid the worry, stress, and trauma of entering homelessness.'

More than 12,000 households reached out to a charity last year over fears they would be made homeless, an increase of 12% on the previous year.

Housing non-profit Threshold said in its annual report for 2022 that it dealt with more than 47,000 phone calls, 9,400 webchat queries, around 6,800 emails, and almost 200 video consultations.

Around 10,000 people in 4,500 homes considered to be at risk were saved from homelessness, it claimed.

Threshold chairman Liam Reid said: “Despite the housing crisis in Ireland receiving so much attention over recent years, we have yet to see major in-roads in terms of its resolution. The number of people contacting our advisors for assistance continues to grow.

“Through our advocacy and campaigning in 2022, we saw essential policy changes introduced to provide additional protection to those at risk of homelessness, including an extension of the notice periods and a temporary ban on evictions in the latter part of the year.”

For the sixth year in a row, tenancy terminations remain the largest issue facing private tenants, the organisation said.

Nearly 40% of its queries related to rental terminations.

Out of 18,684 households assisted in 2022, almost 11,000 households were contacting Threshold for the first time.

Many clients had multiple issues, the organisation said.

Alongside the lack of supply of available rental accommodation, rents have risen beyond those reached during the Celtic Tiger years. Even when availing of rent supplement, for many families and individuals, making the rent each month has become an impossible task.

“In 2022, Threshold supported an additional 71 households to avail of an uplift in their rent supplement payment (130 children and 91 adults), which was necessary to bridge the gap and make the rent, thereby enabling these households to avoid the worry, stress, and trauma of entering homelessness,” the annual report said.

Some 455 households that contacted Threshold entered homeless services, while 259 were forced to stay with family and friends — ostensibly couch-surfing — when their tenancy could not be protected, and they could not secure alternative housing, according to chief executive John-Mark McCafferty.

“The significant decline in the availability of homes to rent and the lack of alternative housing options for people, has made the work of stopping homelessness increasingly difficult.

“While the Government is working to address the issue — and Threshold is involved in both the National Homeless Action Committee, and has contributed to the Housing Commission’s working group on regulation of rented housing and quality — demand continues to outstrip supply and the ongoing crisis is not showing any real signs of abating,” he said.

The 259 couch-surfing families are “considerably higher than in 2021, when 209 households entered homelessness and 72 were forced to stay with family and friends”, the annual report said.

“This points to the significant decline in the availability of homes to rent and the lack of alternative housing options for people,” it said.

Mr McCafferty said that rents remain “stubbornly high” while the number of landlords selling and exiting the market “remains a major problem”.