Homelessness is solvable — but only with political will

The 16,058 people who make up the homeless numbers do not include couch surfers, adults who've moved back with their parents, people in refuges — or even rough sleepers 

Since 2016, numbers of homeless have increased by about 16% each year, about twice the rate of house price inflation. File photo: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

In 2016, minister for housing Simon Coveney promised to end the use of hotels and B&Bs to accommodate homeless people by July 2017. He went further and said it was “possible to eradicate” homelessness, and that the issue was “solvable”.

Since then, numbers of homeless have increased by about 16% each year, about twice the rate of house price inflation. And yet there is little more than faux angst from government politicians on the last Friday of each month when the latest homeless numbers are released.