The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has condemned the latest rise in monthly homeless numbers as further evidence of government failure to address the housing emergency.
The figures for the month of October show 16,766 amount of people suffering homelessness including 5,274 children.
Responding to these statistics Congress Campaigns Officer for the Raise the Roof Campaign Paul Gavan said the government is sleepwalking deeper into a housing emergency of its own making.
“Behind every statistic is a family pushed to breaking point. Yet still the Government refuses to take the decisive action that this crisis demands.
“The Residential Tenancies Board is on track to record 20,000 Notices of Termination issued to tenants this year alone. This is not a housing ‘market’. It is a conveyor belt into homelessness, insecurity, and despair for working people across the country.
“From frontline workers priced out of their communities, to families forced into emergency accommodation, tenants trapped into extortionate rents, to young people abandoning any hope of putting down roots, the message is the same: the housing system is failing, and the government is allowing it to fail.”
“18 months ago the Housing Commission called for a radical step-change in how Ireland delivers housing. That meant a fundamental restructuring, not more tinkering around the edges. Yet Government policy remains defined by caution, landlord-led lobbying, and an ideological refusal to treat housing as the public good it must be.”
Mr Gavan continued “There are solutions to the housing crisis. What is lacking is the political will to deliver them. We need a massive expansion of public and cost-rental housing, delivered at scale by the State. We need emergency protections for renters including an immediate ban on all no fault evictions. We need a rapid expansion of the Tenant in Situ scheme to ensure that no more tenants loses their homes.
"Crucially we need a new public housing agency with the powers and funding to build, acquire, and guarantee housing security for all.
"Anything less is a political choice to allow homelessness to keep rising. Working people built this country. They deserve a Government willing to build homes for them - not more excuses.”
