Homelessness crisis will remain a challenge for years, admits minister

Housing minister says rising population continues to outpace supply despite increased delivery of homes nationwide

The most recently published homelessness report confirmed that 17,458 people were living in emergency accommodation. File picture

Housing minister James Browne has conceded that the homelessness crisis will “continue to be a challenge over the next couple of years” as he declined to say when homelessness numbers may begin to fall.

He also acknowledged that current housing output, including the delivery of cost-rental and social homes, is not meeting demand. 

However, he told the Irish Examiner that he believes the Government can “get ahead of population growth” and increase housing supply.

The most recently published homelessness report confirmed that 17,458 people were living in emergency accommodation. The figure does not include people sleeping rough or couch-surfing.

A special report by this newspaper this week showed that homelessness numbers have grown significantly in recent years, despite a series of government commitments and housing plans.

Mr Browne denied that the Government was “numb” to the rising number of homeless people in Ireland.

When asked when homelessness figures would begin to fall, the minister said he could not provide a timeline.

“It's going to continue to be a challenge over the next couple of years,” he said.

“That's reality. Our population is rapidly growing. We are scaling up housing delivery, But we do have that challenge of increased numbers of people seeking homes.

“It is going to continue to be a challenge; there's no question about that. But we are going to get ahead of it in terms of increasing the number of homes, social homes, cost-rental homes and affordable purchase homes. Overall housing delivery is going up. I believe it will continue to go up.”

Mr Browne said the “only way” to solve the housing crisis is “supply, supply, supply”.

He made the comments at the launch of Coolevally in Shankill, south Dublin, where the ribbon was cut on 198 new social and cost-rental apartments.

Rents at the development start at €1,175 for a studio apartment, €1,334 for a one-bedroom apartment and €1,660 for a two-bedroom apartment.

Tuath, the approved housing body, confirmed that 9,000 applications were received for the 104 cost-rental apartments in the development, with 4,500 applicants deemed eligible.

Mr Browne acknowledged that the Government “is not meeting demand” but argued that “what has to be acknowledged is the scaling up of housing delivery that we are doing”.

He said Ireland’s growing population is increasing demand for housing, which in turn is affecting the number of people recorded as homeless.

He said that “no one predicted the rate of population increase we were going to have”.

“Everything we're doing is trying to address the homelessness crisis in this country,” he continued.

“The numbers are growing. Even a single person in emergency accommodation is one too many. There can be complex needs, and we want to ensure that people with complex needs are being specifically addressed with support.

“But the numbers are growing. While we delivered over 36,000 homes in total last year, the population is growing at a very rapid pace, and what we have to do is get ahead of that population growth and ensure that the homes are there for everybody.”

Separately, Mr Browne confirmed that the planning statement to regulate the short-term letting sector will be published in the coming weeks.

A register for short-term lets had been due to be introduced in May in a bid to return more properties to the long-term rental market.

However, the measure was delayed by six months due to disagreements between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

Mr Browne told the Irish Examiner “everybody is frustrated” by the delay”.

He added: “I expect we'll be publishing our short term late planning statement in the next couple of weeks. We have a date for the December 1 for the legislation to be brought in.”