Do your bit for homeless people
A recent national survey carried out on behalf of Focus Ireland revealed 63% of the public blame homelessness and the housing crisis on lack of government action.
Focus Ireland maintains this shows the public has become even further disillusioned with the political resolve to tackle the problem. In the final year of a three-year government homelessness strategy the numbers who are homeless continue to rise. The latest official figures show an increase from 5,234 in 1999 to 5,581 in 2002.
It's shameful that while Ireland is in the EU spotlight, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is getting wider than ever while we have still not signed up to vital European legislation which guarantees housing as a basic human right.
The housing crisis is also deepening as there's a record total of over 48,000 households (about 140,000 people) on waiting lists. This simply can't be allowed to continue if we expect the rest of Europe to take us seriously on social issues.
While Focus Ireland notes the recent announcement of figures by the housing junior minister Noel Ahern which show an increase in the level of local authority house building 3,276 new units being built in the first nine months we would stress that a lot more needs to be done if there's to be any real impact on the record waiting lists.
In our pre-budget submission published in November 2003, Focus Ireland called for the Government to borrow €1bn to pay for extra investment in social housing to help start to provide more permanent housing for nearly 6,000 people who are homeless and on the waiting lists.
There must also be urgent action to boost social housing t in conjunction with moves to allow the direct transfer of more publicly-owned land to voluntary social housing developers.
The bottom line is there needs to be more housing provided for those most in need and these proposals would help that start to happen.
Instead the Government made savage cuts of approximately €60 million in the social welfare budget, making it harder than ever before for the most disadvantaged in our society to survive. The recent cuts in the rent allowance system have already made it more difficult for the most vulnerable to keep a roof over their heads.
Focus Ireland calls on the Taoiseach to enforce the EU housing legislation promoting access to adequate housing, tackling homelessness and making the price of housing accessible to those without adequate resources.
Focus Ireland is also calling on Irish Examiner readers to support our 'right to a home' campaign targeting TDs at a local level. Readers can log on to www.focusireland.org and key in their constituency details. They can then send our pre-written letter outlining three specific demands to their local TDs urging them to take action or contact our office at 01-8851900 if they don't have access to the internet.
We need to show all our politicians that there are votes in these issues and that we want the homeless and housing crisis dealt with effectively for once.
Declan Jones,
Chief Executive,
Focus Ireland,
9-12, High Street,
Christchurch,
Dublin.
