Urgent action from the Government is required to tackle homelessness
The latest homelessness figures highlight the need for urgent action from the Government to address this housing disaster, according to Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan.
Deputy O’Callaghan, who is the party’s Housing spokesperson, said:
“Figures released today show that homelessness has yet again hit record levels. There are now 11,542 people living in homeless emergency accommodation, 3,494 of them children.
“Despite all the promises of action from the Government, the number of people living in emergency homeless accommodation has increased by 27 percent in the last year.
“It is important to remember that these figures do not include people sleeping on floors and couches or living in tents and on our streets.
“With child homelessness increasing by 37 percent in the past year alone, it is hard to understand how hundreds of millions of euros ringfenced for building new local authority homes in 2022 were allocated elsewhere. While the Government promised 9,000 new build social homes last year, recently published figures show that only 2,706 were completed by the end of September.
“Homelessness has a deep and lasting impact on those who experience it. It can have a detrimental effect on the development of children. The Government can no longer sit back and continue to let it grow month after month.
“The Minister needs to act urgently to increase the supply of social, cost rental and affordable purchase homes, and tackle delivery bottlenecks when it comes to land and financing.
“In addition, the scandalous waste of vacant homes must be confronted head on with the introduction of a punitive tax to heavily discourage leaving homes empty.”
January 6, 2023