Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. At the outset, I wish to acknowledge the speed with which the Government reacted in the past week. It is a poor reflection on all of us in this House, however, that it took the death of Jonathan Corrie to provoke such a reaction.

Far too often, both Government and Opposition react and are not out in front leading the charge. I cannot imagine the loneliness, isolation and anxiety of people who must live on our streets and sleep rough at night. If anything positive is to come from the death of Jonathan Corrie we must have a lasting solution to the problem of homelessness. At a minimum, the State should provide the basic human need and human right to a roof over one's head.

We all know that homelessness arises for a variety of reasons, including substance abuse, mental health issues, marital breakdown and the loss of a job. We now need to ensure that a holistic approach is taken to this crisis. While in the region of 200 people are sleeping rough in our city streets at the moment, the problem is much wider and greater than that. While we could have 200 extra beds in the morning, not everybody will accept a bed in emergency accommodation. That is a fact. All the money in the world would not encourage some people to accept such accommodation, for whatever personal reasons and experiences.

There is a bigger issue out there. Over 1,500 people are staying in emergency accommodation. They have lost their homes and they include children who do not know where to call home. Those children should be excited about the arrival of Christmas, but they do not know if Santa will come to them due to the uncertainty over accommodation.

I do not want to make a political issue of this, but people have lost their homes as a result of policy decisions. When one cuts rent allowance, it has a drastic effect on someone who is reliant on that payment. In addition, banks have been heavy handed in evicting people from their homes. The buy-to-let market is so volatile that banks are moving in and landlords are left with no choice but to sell rented properties. That, in turn, is forcing people out into emergency accommodation.

The homeless person is not just the stereotype suffering from substance abuse or psychological issues. People from all walks of life are currently in emergency accommodation. Some of them are bedding down and sleeping on couches. Two weeks ago, a woman was in my constituency office. She is holding down a full-time job but her marriage broke up and she is trying to sort out a house in negative equity. That lady in her 50s is bunking down in accommodation with her son who is sharing with five other people. Those are the type of problems we are facing at the moment.

The Minister's oversight group, which was established last year, talked about moving people away from emergency accommodation to free it up for others. However, some people are bed-blocking by staying in emergency accommodation longer than they should. They are doing so because there is no other accommodation for them to move into. We need to examine that situation.

The Minister said one of the answers to the problem is to get more houses in the private rental market, but that system has failed. It has failed all the more spectacularly in recent years as rents have increased. I have never seen anything like it in my own constituency clinic over the last 12 months. People are coming in because their houses are being sold from under them.

The banks are forcing landlords to sell property and rental accommodation schemes are being terminated at an unprecedented rate in local authorities because those authorities have not been provided with the funding to ensure they can continue to supply houses.

The forum was a welcome initiative last week but it was unfortunate that it focused mainly on Dublin. The problem is clearly more profound in Dublin but the issue is nevertheless much wider. I take this opportunity to highlight a concern in my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, where there are two homeless facilities operating. Bethany House provides 19 places for women with mental health issues, young women leaving residential care, people suffering from drug and alcohol abuse or people fleeing domestic violence. St. Martha's hostel provides 11 emergency short-term places for men. These two facilities are helping men and women at a time when they face very challenging personal circumstances and homelessness. Both facilities are running a deficit in excess of €100,000 for the past 18 months. That deficit comes as a result of a reduction in section 10 funding to those services. The €100,000 deficit has been met in the past 18 months by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, but that is no longer in a position to meet the deficit. These two institutions - Bethany House for women and St. Martha's hostel for men - need additional funding to ensure the services in the midlands can be put on a sustainable footing. The necessary funding should be put in place to ensure these services can be kept open. The crisis may be more profound in Dublin and other large urban areas but there is still a crisis throughout the country.

The Minister must also examine how these institutions are funded and how funding is allocated to various regions. My region of the midlands has the second lowest allocation of funding in the country at €649,707. Meanwhile, the neighbouring north-east region, which services a smaller population, has funding of €1 million. That does not add up. I conclude by wishing the Minister well in his endeavours to eradicate the homelessness crisis. He will have the full support of all Members of the House in ensuring this awful crisis is solved. It is unfortunate that it took the death of a man for the Government to find the additional €20 million needed to tackle the crisis. I hope that when the news moves on, the sense of priority and urgency witnessed in recent days will remain.

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