Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate. I have been raising matters in regard to housing and homelessness for some time. I believe we would all agree there is an emergency in the area of housing when we are told there are 100,000 households on the social housing waiting lists. We will certainly have more families on the waiting lists if we do not have a house construction programme and if we continue to have social welfare cuts and increased rents, which are a particular problem in Dublin.

I welcome the €68 million announced by the Minister of State to be spent over two years to build new social homes for families in need of housing. The Minister has estimated that this will provide 442 new homes. It is a start, but obviously we have a long way to go given the number of people on waiting lists. Funding of €15 million

is available for retrofitting of boarded up local authority houses. This must also be welcomed because we see people waiting for houses in every town, yet these houses are vacant and boarded up when they should be brought into use.

In the past, I raised the slow pace of NAMA property transfers with the Minister of State. I have been told that only 10% of homes earmarked by NAMA for social housing have been transferred to local authorities. I hope this figure can be increased. I would like to see a specialist unit in the housing office in every local authority to speed up transfers. We had a debate yesterday in the House on housing, social housing and homelessness. An issue that certainly comes up when we have this debate is the fact the Minister of State has many groups looking at this situation. There is a monitoring group and an oversight group, but what we now need is action. Of course, I agree with the overall policy statement of the Government in February 2013 which said that the Government's aim was to end long-term homelessness by the end of 2016. That is certainly a welcome objective, but we must work strongly in the meantime to ensure we will work towards that deadline for 2016.

I have seen statements by various people involved in housing. Some of the comments they have made are very worrying. The chief executive of the Simon Community said last year that homelessness and what he called the rough sleeping crisis is worse than ever. He said the Government must decide on a policy on housing because no one is building houses. That is certainly the case in areas where we need housing, particularly the larger towns and cities. He made the point that a homeless person cannot afford private rented accommodation when rents are going up, rent allowance caps are coming down all the time and no extra accommodation is being provided. He said it is a complete logjam. One has the combination of social welfare cuts and not enough units.

According to a figure given at the end of last year, the number of people sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin has increased by 88% in the past year. I know legislation looking at the question of housing assistance has been promised. I hope this will be brought in. Perhaps the Minister of State could tell us what legislation she has in mind in respect of this matter. I know the Minister of State has met NAMA and I hope she will continue to try to get those extra units. I have met representatives from the Simon Community, the Peter McVerry Trust and Focus Ireland and they have all stressed the serious issues facing their organisations and the people on the street. In particular, they raised the issue of youth homelessness. I understand the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs is reviewing a youth homelessness strategy, which should be looked at by the two committees the Minister of State has set up in her Department. There is a need to monitor what is going on.

I spoke to an organisation in Galway, known as COPE, which told me very clearly that homelessness in Galway is not as serious as it is in Dublin. However, it is an area about which COPE is worried. It is especially worried about the way street counts are conducted. I am not too sure who does the weekly street counts of the number of people sleeping rough but there seem to be different figures made available regarding the number of people are sleeping on the streets. The Simon Community made the point that the figures could be higher than the figures reported in the media because the count apparently does not include what we call the hidden homeless - those squatting in Internet cafés and people in hospitals. The figure is probably higher than the official figures we have seen. That is something that is of great concern to the various housing organisations and the people who work at the coalface with homeless people.

One suggestion I made to the Minister of State by way of questions and in a recent Topical Issue debate was using housing organisations. I know there is a proposal with the Minister of State from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Ballinasloe. The branch is seeking €400,000 to provide housing in Ballinasloe in partnership with Clúid, which is a very well-known organisation in housing that has done very good work in many towns. The proposal for Ballinasloe is very interesting. They have a free site thanks to the diocese and are involved with the Maureen O'Connell Fund, which is a fund where money has been left to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to provide housing in Ballinasloe. There is a need for this type of housing, which would be sheltered housing, and it is a very good proposal at which I hope the Minister of State will look. I hope Galway County Council will support that. It has told me it will support it. Voluntary organisations represent just one area that could be used more.

I have been approached lately by some people who are very concerned they might lose their houses. People who were interested in the mortgage-to-rent scheme were told to register with a voluntary housing organisation. I know they will try to do that. The next part of the proposal was that they would surrender their houses and make an application to Galway County Council in the case of constituents of mine in Galway. Perhaps there is too much paperwork involved and it is too complicated to go down this route. I presume they will deal with their financial institution first, but I think many local authorities do not even know this scheme exists and many local authorities are wondering why they are involved in this. Could the Minister of State simplify things? Of course, people want to hold on to their homes. It is the natural wish of families to do that. I hope we could simplify that scheme if one is going to involve local authorities.

I understand that about 8,000 units were completed last year. The ESRI estimates that Ireland requires approximately 25,000 housing units per annum to meet the shifting demographic changes and the demand for housing, so we have a big task ahead of us. Rents in urban parts of the country are increasing, particularly in Dublin. There is a big deficit in the provision of housing in Dublin. I hope those areas can be looked at and that the Minister of State might be able to respond to some of the issues I raised in my short contribution.

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