Sir, – This Government is making it impossible for homeless people to escape homelessness. Due to a lack of social housing, the exit out of homelessness is usually into private rented accommodation, with the help of a rent supplement from the State.
Like the medical card system, the rent supplement system has now been centralised. Like the medical card fiasco, the rent supplement system has become a fiasco. It is taking up to four weeks to get a response from the system, but private landlords are not prepared to wait four weeks to let their property. When a response arrives, the flat is gone. The homeless person has to start all over again, usually with the same result.
Some senior civil servant, sitting in front of a computer screen, decides to reform the system, to make it more administratively convenient, while ignorant (or uncaring) of the impact of the reform on the people affected, and thereby creates much unnecessary frustration and suffering for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. – Yours, etc,