Homelessness rising at ‘alarming rate’ since Covid measures eased

The number of people living in emergency accommodation has been rising at an “alarming rate” following the lifting of preventative measures put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, homelessness charities have said.

On Friday, the Department of Housing published its monthly homelessness report for January 2022, which showed there were 9,150 homeless adults and children in emergency accommodation last month, an increase of 236 on December.

A total of 1,119 families were homeless, an increase of 42 in a month, with 2,563 children without a home, up 112 since December.

There were 4,788 single people accessing emergency accommodation in January, up 66 on December.

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The report, which looked at local authority managed emergency accommodation during January 24th-30th, found that 66 per cent of homeless adults were men.

The vast majority of those in emergency accommodation are in Dublin, at 70 per cent.

Focus Ireland said it is "deeply concerned" the crisis is deepening again and undoing the "considerable progress" made during the pandemic, when the eviction ban and other measures helped to reduce homelessness.

At least one family became homeless every day in the past six months and many more were on the brink of homelessness due to the unstable housing sector, the charity said.

Forgoing food

Pat Dennigan, chief executive of Focus Ireland, said many families lost their homes in the private rented sector as they could not keep up with rising rents.

“Many low-income families are dependent on housing assistance payments (HAP), yet HAP has not increased in over five years,” he said.

“Tenants must pay a portion of the rent themselves on top of the HAP payment, and what our services around the country have seen is that the families have to cut back on food, heating, and other bills to try to keep a roof over their heads.”

The Dublin Simon Community said it was "dismayed" at the "alarming rate" at which homelessness was increasing.

“Rents are also increasing, causing major distress and bewilderment to people who have received valid notices of termination and cannot find anywhere to live within their budgets,” the charity said.

A spokesman from the Department of Housing said the increase in homelessness figures in January “is of course a serious concern for the Government”.

“While significant improvements have been made on the situation we were facing in 2019 when homelessness was at its highest, there is still a huge amount of work to be done, and this work is being given absolute priority,” the spokesman added.

Separately, housing charity Threshold said safeguards were needed for renters to ensure landlords did not use the Government’s new retrofitting scheme as a way to end tenancies.

This week, a representative of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) told an Oireachtas committee that is was possible this could become a problem.

The Government’s Home Energy Upgrade Scheme will provide people with grants to improve the energy efficiency of their homes as part of the State strategy to combat climate change.

One of the criteria landlords can cite to end a tenancy is carrying out a “substantial refurbishment” of the property.

There is also an exemption available from the rules limiting rent increases in rent pressure zones (RPZ) if the landlord plans to make a “substantial change” to the property, including substantially improving its Building Energy Rating.

Working group

Threshold chief executive John-Mark McCafferty has called for a working group to be established to find solutions to the risk of landlords using the retrofitting scheme to end tenancies.

He suggested further incentives could be offered to landlords seeking to upgrade their properties but that eligibility for any such supports should be linked to protecting tenancies and undertakings not to increase rent as a result of the refurbishment.

Mr McCafferty said Threshold would be raising the matter in its next meeting with Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien.

A Department of Housing statement said that under existing legislation where a landlord terminates a tenancy due to substantial renovations, “that property must be offered back to the former tenant ... upon completion of the works”.