WITH rents continuing to rise, there is a real danger that more people will be pushed onto the streets.
That’s the view of Labour Party Housing spokesperson and Limerick TD Jan O’Sullivan who said that despite economic improvements, Ireland has the fastest rate of families being forced into homelessness across the EU.
“While it might be out of the headlines at the moment, Ireland’s homelessness crisis has not gone away — quite the opposite, with the most recent figures showing more than 7,000 people were homeless in January, including around 2,400 children,” she said.
Deputy O’Sullivan is of the view that Ireland needs to pull back from its reliance on private developers to build housing.
“We are still waiting on the Department of Housing to carry out the audit of all empty homes that it promised last July which, with an estimated 13 per cent of housing stock lying empty, seems like an obvious step to take,” she added.
by Alan Jacques
