An Irish homelessness charity have warned that the country’s crisis is deepening as new government figures report over 7,000 homeless for the first time.
The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government’s homeless report for December 2016 found that 7,148 (including over 2,500 children) were homeless nationwide. The report states that housing authorities assisted in more than 2,000 sustainable exits from homeless in the first three-quarters of 2016:
“There have been significant increases in rates of homelessness in recent times. However it is important to note that much is being done to address homelessness and to secure sustainable tenancies for homeless households.
The Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is designed to accelerate all types of housing supply – social, private and rental. Over the next six years, some 47,000 new social houses will be provided and housing output generally will be progressively increased towards the target of producing 25,000 houses per year through all channels.”
Ashley Balbirnie, CEO of Focus Ireland, said they welcomed the report’s findings that the number of families who are homeless did not rise last month but commented that there is still much work to be done to end the homeless crisis:
“It is terrible to see over 7,000 people, including over 2,500 children, homeless for the first time on record. This is wrong and totally unacceptable. We worked to support over 230 families to move out of homelessness into secure homes in the first ten months of last year.”
The charity said that while the government has taken some positive action by introducing the rent pressure zones to try and ease rent inflation it is unclear if this will be enough.
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