Spending on hotels for homeless up 85% since April

Almost 85 per cent more money has been spent on hotel rooms for homeless people since April than in the first three months of this year, according to figures from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive.

From January to March €1.6 million was spent on hotel rooms for families who had become homeless. By the end of June that figure had risen to €4.55 million.

The outlay on hotels for the year so far is close the to same amount as was spent in the whole of 2014.

Last year the executive spent more than €5.3 million accommodating families in hotels, the most ever spent on emergency hotel accommodation in the city.

In 2013 €1.35 million was spent on hotel rooms, while in 2012 less than half a million, €455,736, was spent.

Emergency

The number of families living in emergency accommodation has increased from 264 to 531 over the past year.

However, while the number of families living in council-owned or other State or charity-supported accommodation has remained relatively static, the number of families who are staying in hotels has increased by more than 160 per cent.

Of the 264 families in emergency accommodation in June 2014, 149 were living in hotels. By June this year 388 were living in hotels in the city.

The number of homeless children in Dublin reached 1,122 at the end of June and just under 800 of them are living in hotels.

Director of the executive Cathal Morgan said the use of hotels was unsustainable but was a last resort to avoid families having to sleep rough.

‘Unsustainable’

“We have always regarded this approach as unsustainable and not where we want to be, hence the radical need, which we have consistently being advocating and working on, to concentrate on housing supply.”

The executive was also pursuing efforts to prevent homelessness through measures such as the state-funded Threshold Tenancy Protection service, Mr Morgan said.

People Before Profit councillor Bríd Smith said she had been contacted by a number of homeless families who were losing their hotel rooms because of bookings made by tourists.

“We can’t keep spending these huge sums on hotels. It appears that the rates are going and they can’t be relied on as families are being asked to leave hotels because of tourism bookings.”

Earlier this month Mr Morgan said the executive was having increasing difficulty placing families in hotels because of competition with the summer tourist trade.

Hotel owners were turning down offers of full-rate payments for rooms from the executive in favour of accommodating tourists.

The city is facing a shortfall of €18.5 million in funding from the Department of the Environment for homeless services this year.