The number of families becoming homeless every month has risen by 1,000% since 2011, a leading charity revealed yesterday.
Focus Ireland released the figure as it launched its pre-Budget submission, calling for action to fast-track increased delivery of social housing.
Government figures for June showed there were 10,172 homeless people in Ireland – 6,497 adults and 3,675 children.
Focus Ireland said in July, the figure rose to 10,275.
The charity is urging the Government to allocate specific investment in the Land Development Agency to help drive the better use of State-owned land to deliver more social housing and affordable rental accommodation.
Focus Ireland director of advocacy Mike Allen said: “The solution to homelessness is simple. We need to deliver more social housing and more affordable rental accommodation.
“To achieve this we must make maximum use of all the resources available to us, and publicly-owned land is one of the most significant resources we have.
“We are calling for a significant shift in the overall allocation of how
public land is used by the LDA to be made in Budget 2020 to ensure it has the resources to deliver a minimum of 15% social, 15% cost rental and 30% ‘affordable for sale’ on all LDA State-owned land developments.
“When Fine Gael came into Government in 2011, eight families were becoming homeless every month.
“This has now increased to an average of 90 families becoming homeless every month.
“That is a staggering increase of more than 1,000% in the past eight years.
“Meanwhile, the latest figures clearly show the homeless crisis is
continuing to deepen with a total of 10,275 homeless.
“These shocking figures mean the Government must really take significant action to make delivering more social and affordable rental housing one of the main priorities in Budget 2020.”
