So many homeless families are coming forward for help that there won’t be enough new housing and other facilities to tackle the crisis properly until next year, the head of one of the country’s biggest councils has warned.
Paul Reid, chief executive of Fingal County Council, in north Dublin, said that new families are looking for assistance faster than existing families are being moved out of emergency accommodation.
He added that although public and private social-housing units are in development, and existing policies are working, “the difficulty is it will be into next year before we see it at a volume”. New facilities are expected in the first half of 2018, but there will be a time lag before supply meets the dramatically increasing demand, he said.
Mr Reid also told The Irish Times that councils are encountering serious difficulties in finding buildings to turn into so-called family hubs, to provide homeless families with accommodation other than hotels and bed and breakfasts.
Homeless deaths
Mr Reid's comments follow the deaths of three homeless people in the past week and the release of figures that showed Dublin had 2,423 homeless children in July. They also come ahead of an emergency summit convened by Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy.
Mr Reid, who said his views were shared by senior officials in Dublin’s three other local authorities, said the rising property market is leading to a dramatic increase in the number of tenants becoming homeless, as landlords are selling their homes. Eighty per cent more homeless families came to Fingal County Council in August than in January.
Mr Reid said that councils are scaling up their activities – Fingal is expected to spend €230 million on housing by the end of 2018, up from an original budget of €81 million by the end of 2017 – but the time lag is creating a problem. “If the presentations continue at the rate they are at, it is going to be very challenging,” he said.
Government concern
His statement is in line with the private views of some in Government who are preparing for the housing and homelessness crisis to dominate the winter.
“Our capacity to bring on the number of family hubs can’t currently meet the numbers presenting,” Mr Reid said. “We are managing to put in processes so that people don’t become homeless. That could be encouraging people to stay with families, et cetera, but there is a lag there between the time it is going to take us to bring on hubs.
“I don’t know how long that is going to be sustainable for. We can’t buy the hubs. We are trying to buy whatever we can get our hands on. We do need different solutions.”