LABOUR’S housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan has written to Housing Minister James Browne demanding urgent action following the release of February’s homelessness figures, which show a record 15,378 people without a home, including 4,653 children.
The stark numbers show 600 adults in local authority emergency accommodation across the Mid West in month of February, 500 of which were in Limerick.
The report showed an additional 224 children as without a home in the Mid West.
A breakdown in the report showed 480 Irish adults homeless in the Mid West region, 57 from the UK and the European Economic Area, and 63 from outside the EU.
Deputy Sheehan hit out that “this is not an accident. It is the direct result of political choices made by this government”.
“Their failure to take meaningful action on homelessness has left thousands of families trapped in emergency accommodation, with no end in sight.”
Deputy Sheehan suggested there are measures the Minister could immediately take to provide a real solution, including passing his party’s Housing (Homeless Families) Bill 2017; increasing investment in homelessness prevention; ensuring the Tenant-in-Situ Scheme protects single people; and review the allocation criteria for social housing.
The Limerick TD said the Labour bill, first introduced by former Limerick Labour TD Jan O’Sullivan, would ensure local authorities place the best interests of the child at the centre of homelessness decision-making.
He also took the view that the government has committed to the Lisbon Declaration but has “failed” to put real funding behind prevention.
“The focus on the homelessness report this week highlights the hundreds of millions spent on emergency accommodation — most of it going to private providers — while long-term solutions are ignored,” he claimed.
Increasing funding for the Tenant-in-Situ Scheme, he maintains, would prevent more single people from entering homelessness, adding that allocations must be reviewed to ensure they help those in greatest need, particularly families and long-term homeless individuals.
“Evidence-based reform is long overdue,” he said.
“Further action is needed to strengthen tenants’ rights and increase housing supply, which is at the heart of the crisis. But these homelessness measures must be prioritised now as the government prepares a replacement for Housing for All.
“This cannot go on. No child should grow up without a home, and no one should be forced to sleep in emergency accommodation because of government inaction. We need a renewed sense of urgency, and we need it now.”
