Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Minister that this issue should be discussed every week in this House, because it is a crisis.

Not only is it a crisis, it is also an emergency, although the Minister has not declared it as such. That is where we find a difference between his approach and that taken on this side of the House.

Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned that he has been losing patience over the past six years. Deputies Boyd Barrett, Catherine Murphy, Durkan and I who began raising this issue in 2012. We were seeing what was happening on the ground. We could see the train coming because we were dealing with people who were finding themselves homeless. We took every opportunity to raise this issue in the Dáil and to force the Government to think about what was happening. The Labour Party were in power with the Minister's party at the time. The Government failed to develop a moral policy platform to address the issue that was developing on the ground. We reached a point where, as has been mentioned, there were 1,000 families in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation in 2015. There are now 5,298 adults homeless. Those numbers were mentioned. There are 1,463 homeless families, up from 1,178 in October 2016, a year ago. That includes 394 children.

Those figures do not include those families living in overcrowded accommodation. Dublin City Council's housing policy committee issued a report yesterday. We should all read it if we get a chance. I pulled some figures from the report issued at yesterday's meeting. There were 783 families living in commercial premises in October 2016 and there were 716 in October 2017. This figure has been reduced by the Government's rapid-build housing programme, which has housed approximately 200 families over the last year. Families who have been brought into hubs should also be considered. If those measures were not there, what would the situation be in respect of hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation?

Even more interesting than this figure from the council is the fact that 676 families were in commercial premises in September but the figure increased by 88 in October. In that month alone, 88 families declared themselves newly homeless and were accommodated in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation. A further 76 were prevented from entering those commercial premises because they were placed in tenancies through HAP. Therefore, nearly 150 new families declared themselves homeless in the month of October, despite all the temporary arrangements and small arrangements, which are not making the dent in homelessness that needs to be made.

The report also details a survey that was even more important. It re-emphasised the issue of overcrowding in people's homes. The council carried out a survey on the reasons families found themselves homeless from June to August of 2017. It included a total of 279 families. The most common reason people were finding themselves in that situation was because they were being forced to leave private rented accommodation on foot of a notice to quit. That was the reason 46% of those 276 families gave for finding themselves homeless.

The second most common reason was that families were leaving the accommodation of families and friends due to relationship breakdown or overcrowding. Some 49% of families gave that reason. We are now finding that, over the past three or four years, people have been put up in the homes of their families, their parents and their friends. That is now becoming more difficult. When adults are living in the same environment and there are children from different families, the overcrowding can make matters difficult. These people are now finding themselves being forced into homeless accommodation. That is an absolute disgrace.

I made the point on Leaders' Questions two weeks ago that during the course of the week in which silly games were being played between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, in the real world two homeless men died. I also made the point that two more families from my constituency came to me having received notices to quit because their landlords were claiming that major refurbishment was needed in the homes. That is the reality for people.

Those two families, along with almost two families every week prior to that, found themselves in that situation and form part of the 46% of families forced to leave their private rented accommodation because of a notice to quit as noted in the council report. In the same week, Threshold released its annual report, which showed a massive increase in the numbers contacting it in fear of losing their homes, mainly in the private rented sector, which again confirms the detail of the council report. Some 71,000 calls were made to Threshold last year, which is more than double the number in 2015.

According to a report by the Simon Community published this week, 90% of homes available to rent in Ireland are beyond the reach of those dependent on State housing benefit. Such people are locked out of the market. The report found that the number of rental properties available has dropped significantly and there is an increasing gap between rent supplement limits and property prices. During the period over which the study was conducted, there were no properties available to rent at or below the housing assistance payment, HAP, limit for a single person and only two for couples within the 11 areas covered. It is a very profound report. HAP is a form of social housing support for those with long-term housing needs. The number of properties available fell by 53% from 1,150 in May 2015. Niamh Randall of the Simon Community said that State housing benefits must be increased to allow people to compete in a very challenging rental market. However, people are trying to compete in a very set rental market that is not expanding and in which there is a bottleneck. Only those of significant means can afford the rents being sought, such as €1,800 or €2,000 per month in Dublin city.

As we found out approximately two years ago having raised this matter, landlords are seeking large deposits. A family in Walkinstown comprising a couple and their three children are living with their parents and other family members in one home, which is causing major problems. The family sought rental accommodation in Tallaght but landlords were seeking three months' rent in advance. In view of the low level of support provided by HAP, what homeless or ordinary working class family can afford three months' rent in advance and €2,000 per month thereafter?

Rather than the situation is easing and possibly settling down, it is worsening. It is not getting any better, as is proven by the figures provided by the council and published yesterday. As has been said, there is an ideological difficulty whereby the Government is not building public and affordable housing according to the European cost rental model on public land owned by Dublin City Council and other councils across the country. The Minister will not accept that point. Such houses would be available to those on social welfare, the minimum wage, wages that one would earn in the retail sector, construction industry or private sector or the average industrial wage or less. The European cost rental model is crucial to workers getting access to homes. Unless a radical step of that nature is taken, the situation will worsen and the Government will have to stand over that. It will have to go into a general election in which people who normally vote for Fine Gael, along with their families and children who have no chance of buying a house in the coming years, will challenge Fine Gael Deputies and ask what they have done about the problem. The Government has done very little and has only tinkered at the edges of the problem. It has not fundamentally addressed the issue that needs to be addressed: how to build homes for which people can afford to get a mortgage or rent according to the European cost rental model.

I watched reports from a recent housing conference hosted by Newstalk at which the Minister spoke. Richard Barrett, who, along with Johnny Ronan was responsible for the infamous docklands disaster eight, nine or ten years ago, was at the conference and said that he, as a private developer, wants to build social housing because he believes people should not be in the situation that many are and that it is terrible for people not to have homes.

I do not trust these people - I will keep it clean - as far as I could throw them. They created the disaster we face, they made money back on their losses through NAMA and now they find themselves back on their feet. The reason Mr. Barrett is back on his feet is that he had more international investments than Irish investments. These people are coming back to make a killing. We should not accept this. The Government has a moral and policy-driven responsibility to ensure that housing is built for people who can afford it, that people can afford the rent on such housing and that they can afford to live in it without having huge mortgages around their necks. I still pay €1,400 per month on my mortgage - I have remortgaged a few times over the years because money was free and was being handed out willy-nilly, but very few people could afford that now. A Tesco worker or other retail worker, a hotel industry worker, a construction industry worker or a worker in most other sectors would not be able to afford such a mortgage. He or she would not be approved for one anyway because his or her income would not be enough even to cross the threshold of a bank to apply for a mortgage.

The Minister must radically reconsider the situation. He must consider public housing on public lands that is affordable, the European cost-rental model and the acquisition of lands from the OPW and other State agencies in order to start building these houses. It will be a real challenge because we do not have the workers to do so, the builders to build. We would have to encourage people to come back from Australia, Canada or wherever else and consider even radical alternatives such as telling them that if they take part in a certain building project, they could possibly get a home in it and consequently, coming home would be worth their while. Furthermore, major industry and international corporations are now saying this is becoming a major problem for them and that they do not have homes, including rented accommodation, to house their workers who are coming over. This is another huge problem for the Minister. However, it is not my concern; our concern should be that our people get homes they can afford.

I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett. It is a year since the events surrounding Apollo House, when the then Minister, Deputy Coveney, promised that not one homeless person would be in a commercial property after July 2017. We know from the figures that this has not come to pass. Despite the hubs, in the period October 2016 to June 2017 a total of 716 new families were placed in commercial accommodation. I will make one short point about the hubs. The hub on Clonard Road will open in the next week or so. We went to visit it with the neighbours around the area because we included them in that process when it was announced initially. It is better than a hotel. There is a kitchen area, a separate area that a family will be able to book to bring in friends for a special event and so on. The residents will be able to cook their own food. However, the bedrooms are absolutely not up to accommodating two or three children. There are televisions in the rooms. A single parent with two children will not be able to leave the bedroom to watch television downstairs. Her only option will be to sit down and watch the television in her own room and switch it off at 9 p.m. if she wants to put her kids to bed early. There are fundamental issues in this regard. We raised these with the Salvation Army, the organisation running the hub.

I appeal to the Minister. A year on from the events surrounding Apollo House, a big event was held on Wednesday last in the Mansion House at which all the organisations involved, including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and other unions, called for a demonstration for 7 April. I hope it is a mass demonstration because we must get the message out. This is not just about homelessness; it is about the generations that have no hope of getting roofs over their heads for their families in the future unless there is a radical change in policy. I hope we get this message out to people on 7 April. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is also organising a major housing conference for 23 January in the Communications Workers Union, CWU, offices on the North Circular Road. They want political representatives, housing experts and homelessness advocacy groups to attend. Perhaps the Minister could come along to that. I do not know whether he received an invite. More and more organisations are beginning to realise that if this is not addressed and if we do not see a change in policy soon we face a disaster and I ask the Minister to take that on board.

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