3,500 kids in homeless shelters this Christmas...
Calls to extend eviction ban
NEARLY 3,500 children spent Christmas in homeless accommodation, stark new figures have revealed.
The number of people without permanent homes once again broke records in December as 11,632 were logged as homeless.
It was the sixth month in a row that homelessness figures reached record levels, despite the Government introducing a six-month eviction ban in November.
There were 8,190 adults and 3,442 children recorded as homeless during the week ending December 25. The number of children in homeless accommodation dropped by 52 compared to November.
Some 71% of homeless people were in Dublin, where 5,793 were in homeless accommodation.
These figures only include the number of people in sheltered premises.
It does not account for people who are living on the streets, in tents or couch surfing.
On Thursday, Housing Minister Darragh O’brien said that although housing had “turned a corner” there was “a heck of a lot more to do”. He also indicated that the Government might extend the eviction ban.
He said: “We haven’t made our mind up on that and we’re keeping an eye on it.”
Focus Ireland described December’s homelessness figures as “shameful”, with CEO
Pat Dennigan calling for the Government to publish a progress report on the eviction ban and to lay out its plan for when it comes to an end.
Catherine Kenny, CEO of Dublin Simon Community, said the group was “deeply frustrated”.
She added: “This is highly unusual and concerning for December, which normally features a brief decline in numbers as people are accommodated by family and friends over the Christmas period.”
David Carroll, Chief Executive of Depaul, called for a “short extension of the eviction ban to allow for breathing space to put specific plans in place to target tenancies subject to a notice to quit”.
There was also a political push to extend the eviction ban, with the
Social Democrats’ Cian O’callaghan warning that there will be a “tsunami of evictions” after March.
Sinn Fein’s Eoin O Broin told the Irish Mirror the Government must do “something really dramatic” such as “using emergency planning and emergency procurement powers and modular building technologies” to provide additional social housing.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said it was a “horrendous way to spend Christmas as a family”.