Homelessness numbers and their impact.

Note that exits include both exits from emergency accommodation and persons who have been assessed as homeless but have not entered emergency accommodation e.g. HAP preventions through homeless HAP.

To date in 2019, 51% of families presenting to homeless services in the Dublin region were prevented from having to enter emergency accommodation.

The long term solution to the current homeless issue is to increase the supply of homes

The root cause of increased homelessness is the supply shortage across the housing sector, which in turn is a result of the recent economic collapse and the associated damage to the construction sector. Accordingly the long-term solution to the current homeless issue is to increase the supply of homes.

At present there is statistical obfuscation if not ‘corruption’.

• Homelessness as a problem is generally well recognised in Ireland
• Housing vulnerability is much less recognised, which among other things means that prevention is not prominent in the Irish approach
• Homelessness has long been a problem in Ireland but the numbers keep growing
• There is a particular cast to this though in that public building is gradually being replaced by acquisition from the private sector and private accommodation is coming to replace (rather than complement) public housing in the response to homelessness and housing exclusion (HHE) and other housing-related problems.
• exits from homelessness and HHE are fewer than the numbers entering
• over-reliance on private-sector housing which has little security for tenants; almost complete dependence on (an under-resourced) voluntary sector for service provision;
• Prevention is another key weakness. To rectify this means enhancing homeless and general housing support services and much stronger rent control measures as well as regulation of the private-rented housing sector with a particular focus on tenant protection and rights. The low stock and insufficient supply of social housing (currently at 8% of total stock) is another issue of concern and arguably the fundamental issue.

One officer said he returned from a UN mission in 2017 and was, at the time, renting a one-bed apartment with his wife in Dublin for €1,600. He said their landlord told them their lease was up and the rent was going up to €2,400.

He said he told his superior: “I will either have to leave the Defence Forces or stay and be homeless with my wife, who is expecting a child. That was the stark reality facing me when I returned from overseas service.”

She said she had been looking for a property for ten months and had been facing homelessness.

testimonies from women outlined landlord behaviour including commenting on women's appearances, making inappropriate sexual comments, warning tenants not to have boyfriends and sending drunken text messages.

The long term solution to the current homeless issue is to increase the supply of homes

The root cause of increased homelessness is the supply shortage across the housing sector, which in turn is a result of the recent economic collapse and the associated damage to the construction sector. Accordingly the long-term solution to the current homeless issue is to increase the supply of homes.

Dr O’Malley, who also leads a research team at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, said it is extremely difficult for parents to feed their children healthy food in cramped hotel rooms with little or no cooking facilities.
She said: “From the homelessness aspect it’s just being able to have access to cook and store food or to sit at a table together. That stability and continuity is vital to support health and development.
“It’s much harder to have wholefoods and vegetables. If you don’t have refrigeration it’s hard to keep dairy.
“So quick, cheap, high-calorie food makes the most sense but may provide less nutrition.
“It’s not a parental decision not to do the right thing. This is a decision operating within the confines of restricted choice and the child’s little body reacts to this stress.”

She said the discussion needs to shift from parental blame and look at society’s role in childhood obesity.

A brain-damaged homeless man has been on remand for more than a year in Mountjoy Prison’s high dependency unit despite persistent reports he is of unsound mind and needs residential care, the president of the High Court has heard.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly, having been told a senior HSE official had cancelled a residential care plan due to "resource issues" and it was being proposed to discharge him to access homeless services, said this was a "staggering" and “truly awful situation and one that should not exist in a civilised state".

He directed that papers in the case be served on the Minister for Justice, the HSE, the Irish Prison Service and the DPP and returned the matter to next week.

The HSE has “at last” identified an appropriate place and made funding available for it, Mr Justice Peter Kelly remarked today.

The State is “letting children down” by having them live in emergency accommodation, Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy has said.
Mr Murphy was updating an Oireachtas housing committee on the progress of Rebuilding Ireland, the Government’s plan for housing and homelessness, published in 2016 and branded an “abject failure” by housing campaigner Fr Peter McVerry.

Minister Murphy acknowledged that there were not enough homes

The long term solution to the current homeless issue is to increase the supply of homes

The root cause of increased homelessness is the supply shortage across the housing sector, which in turn is a result of the recent economic collapse and the associated damage to the construction sector. Accordingly the long-term solution to the current homeless issue is to increase the supply of homes.

A study from the Central Bank has found that 34,000 new dwellings will be needed each year for the next decade to keep up with demand.

But following the crash, house construction collapsed and between 2011 and 2014 an average of just 5,500 houses a year were built.

But the population did not stop growing during those years.

Today's study from the Central Bank found that in order for housing to have kept up with the growth in the population, around 27,000 dwellings per year would have had to be built in the past eight years from 2011 until 2019.

However, the average housing completion rate for this period was just 10,500 dwellings a year.

Fianna Fail TD Darragh O’Brien said the average support to tenants will cost the State more than building a new home after 21 years.

Figures given to him by from Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy shows the State will spend over €844million on rent support this year, including €423million on the HAP scheme.

For 2019, the average monthly HAP payment was €829. This was provided to 48,261 households.

The average cost of building a new two-bedroom home nationally is €213,000.