‘End the disgrace of child homelessness’
THE homelessness crisis among children is a disgrace and the efforts to tackle it are not working, according to the Ombudsman for Children.
Dr Niall Muldoon said of Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy’s claims of improvements: ‘It’s some progress, but it’s really not sufficient.’ He added: ‘All the initiatives we are taking don’t seem to be getting us where we want to go.
‘I call on the Minister to put children into the legislation so that their needs are prioritised.’
Dr Muldoon said he had been in office for two-and-a-half years, and that the number of homeless children and young people had been escalating throughout this time.
‘It really is a disgrace,’ he added. ‘We are not seeing the changes on the ground that we really need.’
Mr Murphy admitted on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that advances against homelessness were too slow. Separately, children’s charity Barnardos yesterday called on the Government to guarantee that no child spends more than six months in emergency accommodation.
The call comes as shocking new figures revealed that the number of children homeless in Ireland has risen by more than 50%. There is a current total of 3,124 children who are in temporary or short-term accommodation, which is an increase of 1,638 over the last year.
There are over 8,300 people in emergency accommodation, including hotels and B&Bs, with more than 3,000 of them aged under 18.
‘I know it’s too slow, I know we need to do more – the Government recognises that,’’ Minister Murphy said. ‘There are still 690 families in hotels, and even one family in a hotel or B&B is one too many.
‘But it is significantly down on the high point that was reached in March earlier this year.’
Focus Ireland, the anti-homelessness charity, said there should be specific legislation preventing landlords from evicting families.
Spokesman Roughan McNamara said the Government ‘needs to do more to prevent people from becoming homeless’.
June Tinsley, head of advocacy at Barnardos, said: ‘Yet again we see a tragic rise in the number of children registered as homeless. We cannot emphasise enough the damaging effect that living in emergency accommodation has on a child’s development.
‘Barnardos is calling on the Government to guarantee no child spends more than six months in emergency accommodation. Without decisive action, this Government will be responsible for one of the largest societal failings the State has ever witnessed.’