‘Some families stay homeless to get a council house quicker’
THE chief of Dublin City Council has said some families are staying in emergency accommodation so they can get a council house quicker.
DCC chief executive Owen Keegan claimed some are still trying to take advantage of the system, despite reforms to prevent it.
Mr Keegan told Today With Seán O’Rourke yesterday: ‘There is an issue... of families in homeless accommodation who... decide that they will stay in emergency accommodation because they think they have a better prospect in accessing permanent local authority housing. They make a choice that they will stay in emergency accommodation rather than avail of, for example, Housing Assistance Payment in the rental sector, while they queue up for… an offer of social housing.’
Former chairman of the State’s Housing Agency, Conor Skehan, came under fire last year for suggesting that families were ‘gaming the system’ by declaring themselves homeless to jump to the top of the housing list.
Dublin City councillors then stopped prioritising homeless families on waiting lists.
The Government is also set to make changes to social housing policies to deter people on waiting lists from refusing a home.
Currently, if two offers of social housing are refused, the applicant is suspended from the waiting list for a year. This suspension period is due to be extended to five years to prevent people from turning down offers of social housing.
Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin told Today With Seán O’Rourke he was ‘genuinely taken aback’ by Mr Keegan’s comments yesterday. ‘Let’s be very clear – homeless families don’t have a choice,’ he said.
‘The whole reality of homelessness is when people no longer have a roof over their heads and present to a local authority in desperation.’
Mr Ó Broin added: ‘The use of the language of choice to describe what these families are going through... suggests Owen Keegan doesn’t understand the reality of families.’
Mr Keegan added that of the 2,300 single homeless persons in emergency accommodation, a proportion ‘have a range of very complex problems and the reality is for some of those people they are not capable of sustaining independent tenancies. In previous days, they would have been probably in mental institutions... the reality is some of those people won’t move on.’
Campaigners hit out at Mr Keegan at the weekend after he said good homelessness services are fuelling demand.
He defended his comments yesterday, saying they were ‘just a statement of fact’. ‘The reality is if you provide better quality services and very generous eligibility, then people are going to avail of those services,’ he said.
Comment – Page 14 lisa.o’donnell@dailymail.ie
‘Families don’t have a choice’