LOCAL homeless organisations the Mid West Simon Community and Novas Initiatives say that Budget 2016 does not go far enough to address the current homeless crisis.
While both groups welcomed the increase in funding for homeless services, they are disappointed at the omission of rent control measures from Tuesday’s budget.
Jackie Bonfield, general nanager of the Mid West Simon Community said: “We are deeply disappointed that there will not be an announcement of introduction of rent certainty measures today. These measures are essential in light of rapidly increasing market rents to offer tenants greater security of tenure.
“That these proposals have been blocked at a time when there is such limited social housing supply is appalling. Without such measures people will continue to find rents unaffordable and will continue to be pushed over the edge into homelessness. Rent certainty would provide the tenant and the landlord with certainty and security with tenancies.”
Ms Bonfield was also critical of the government’s failure to increase rent supplement rates.
“Our Locked Out report (August 2015) showed that 92 per cent of properties on the market are outside of the reach of people on state rent support. If people cannot afford growing markets rents with the limited state support provided we will continue to see people becoming homelessness and people prevented from leaving homelessness behind. It is almost impossible to find accommodation that falls within the supplement limits.”
She also revealed that in the Mid West region this week, there were only nine available properties within the rent supplement limit – one in Clare, four in Limerick and four in Tipperary.
A spokesperson for Novas Initiatives welcomed the government’s commitment of €17 million to emergency accommodation and to the social housing construction programme.
However they added that it “does little to stem the tide of homelessness right now”.
“Without an increase in rent caps and without rent certainty families will continue to be forced into homelessness with little hope of securing family accommodation in the short-term,” added that spokesperson.
Referring to the news that NAMA is to provide more than 20,000 new houses over the next five year, Ms Bonfield said: “We have continuously expressed concern in relation to social housing provision that there is just too little happening at far too slow a pace. We cannot tell the men, women and children using our services, trapped in emergency accommodation and people sleeping on our streets at night to wait two years before they will have a home of their own. Local Authorities need to get back into the core business of building and delivering social housing to those who need it most.”
