Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have asked for this debate for weeks on end at the Business Committee. Finally, we got there but it takes this long just to get a debate on what is an absolute disaster. The Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, said when he came into office that child and family homelessness was his priority. The Government has repeatedly said this is the biggest social emergency facing it. Yet, tomorrow, we are going to have the new homelessness figures and the likelihood is those figures will reach close to 17,000 people in emergency accommodation, maybe even exceeding that figure, with 5,000 of those being children.

The likelihood is that those figures will reach close to 17,000 people in emergency accommodation and they may even exceed that figure, with 5,000 of those being children. It is an obscene level of child and family homelessness. We are breaking the records pretty much every month in terms of the hardship and suffering being imposed on families, children and individuals in homelessness, facing homelessness or in crisis housing situations. It seems to me that the Government is normalising this. There can be no other explanation for allowing the homeless figures to climb to the levels the Government has allowed, in a housing crisis that has been acknowledged. It took a while for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Governments to acknowledge it. I remember when some of us were using the term "crisis" back in 2012 and 2013 and we were being dismissed. Eventually there was an acknowledgement, more than 12 years ago, that there was a crisis, not an emergency. I do not know if the Government is willing, even now, to use the word "emergency" to describe the absolute disaster that is facing so many people in housing crisis situations or who are actually homeless. The Government has allowed the situation to deteriorate and get worse. It seems to me that the Government actually wants to normalise the situation and get us used to it. The media at this point will probably sort of ignore this debate now because even they are being inured to the idea that there is just going to be a permanent state of housing misery in this country.

I want to use the brief time available to me to highlight some cases. I get so exercised about this issue because of the people who come to me. I will give a few examples just to highlight the failure of the Government. Suzanne has been nine years on the housing list. She has three kids aged ten, four and two. Her ten-year-old has additional needs and her two-year-old has a heart condition. She will be homeless on Saturday when she has to hand back her keys on foot of a notice to quit because her landlord is selling the property. She has done nothing wrong. This will be the third time in five years that she has been made homeless. Suzanne grew up in care with no family support network. She has been on to the council repeatedly about her situation and is told it does not even have homeless accommodation for somebody who has been nine years on the list and facing her third stint of homelessness. She has been told she will probably have to ring the emergency hours homeless number when she is made homeless on Saturday. It is despicable that Suzanne could be in this situation again with her children.

Caoimhe has been eight and a half years on the housing list. She has three children aged nine, four and two. They have been living in damp and mouldy homeless accommodation for almost ten months. Her two-year-old was taken to hospital with pneumonia during the winter. She was previously in homeless accommodation in 2021. She found a HAP property and lived there for four years but was then made homeless again. Her daughter, at Christmas time, asked for only one thing from Santa - a home of her own. It is just disgusting that she and her child are going through this again.

Vera and her partner have three children, two of whom have disabilities. They have been in homeless accommodation in Monkstown for over six months. The HSE has visited and deemed the accommodation inappropriate for disabled children. Vera submitted multiple consultant letters urging the council to house them. The children are really suffering in the homeless accommodation. She submitted a medical priority form, a HMD form, ten months ago but it still has not been adjudicated on. The family are in absolute crisis.

The list goes on. Julianne has been homeless now with her two children for more than two years and is in her second homeless accommodation. She is currently sharing a bed with her nine-year-old son. Her daughter, who is 14, is now refusing to go to school.

Saoirse has been in a hub for a year. She came in to me and described how she has been suicidal. Her son has autism. She is on a list for a two-bedroom property but is still awaiting to be processed on the HMD form. The list just goes on. This is just a snapshot of cases I am dealing with in my office.

These people are all on the lists for two-bedroom or three-bedroom properties. There are almost no three-bedroom units in the pipeline in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. The private developers are mostly building one- and two-bedroom units and are not really interested in three-bedroom homes because they can get more one- and two-bedroom units on a site. Families are in absolutely dire situations and the Government says it is its priority. What is it going to do for these families? The tenant in situ scheme has slowed to a snail's pace, so for those facing eviction that one possible hope for some of them is not available.

Let us think of people trying to find a HAP tenancy in this situation. Rents in my area for a three-bedroom home are now at €3,200. Any tenancies that end will now all go up to that level in my area. There is no chance of even the HAP as an outlet. As difficult as it was to find a HAP tenancy previously, now there will be no HAP properties available within the limits or anywhere even close to them.

We also have the older people. Tommy and Bridie are a couple who are being evicted from the home they have rented for the past four years. They are aged 69 and 77, respectively, and are absolutely terrified of what is coming down the line. They have been on the older person's housing list for seven years. The council has given them no reassurance, telling them they are No. 38 on the list. Obviously they are terrified as older people, at those ages, that they will end up in emergency accommodation. Both of them have health issues. Bridie has had part of her lung removed as a result of cancer and her breathing is affected. Tommy has macular degeneration and is almost completely blind in one eye, with deteriorating sight in the other. He also has type 2 diabetes. The thought of these people going into a hostel in town is disgusting.

Gary has been living in private rented accommodation for years. In his current place, he has been on rent allowance for 14 years. The council is disputing how long he has been on the list. He has chronic arthritis and rheumatism but neither that nor his age qualifies him to be prioritised by the council. His attempt to be prioritised has been rejected. Older people are not on choice based lettings, CBL, so he has no idea how long he will wait.

Joan is aged 84. Her husband died a few years ago. She lived Dún Laoghaire all her life and she was evicted on 20 January. We were in touch with the council but nothing could be found for her. She is now staying with a family member in Waterford.

We have families and children and older, sick and vulnerable people who are in homeless accommodation, are homeless or are facing homelessness. Then there are those suffering from domestic violence. I will not mention the names here. A woman who has two children was viciously attacked by her ex-partner who is awaiting trial for the attack. Her youngest child witnessed the attack and is traumatised. He has attacked her apartment also, despite a protection order. She tried repeatedly to get priority housing through the council but to no avail, even though she is fleeing domestic violence. Another woman escaped a violent abusive partner and has been couch surfing between two homes. She has been waiting over six months for a HMD form to be assessed.

This is affecting children, families, older people and women and children fleeing domestic violence. There are also those people who go over the threshold. Ian has lived in private rented accommodation with his partner for over 14 years. They were paying €2,300 a month. They have been issued with a notice to quit and are becoming desperate because they cannot find anything within their price range. As you might imagine, €2,300 a month pretty much stretches them. Now, of course, rents for the same property will be over €3,000. They are marginally over the limit for social housing and therefore are not entitled to HAP or any assistance or any prospect of a social home. They went in for the few lotteries for cost rental but of course they did not get them because there is massive oversubscription for those.

Then there is Ben, a very nice young man in his 20s, who came in to see me. He is working for the council but his income is €1,500 over the threshold, which, by the way, has not been moved for three years. He has been on the housing list. He has to pay €250 every two weeks in maintenance to his partner, but that is still assessed against his income. If that was not assessed, he would be below the threshold and he would not be knocked off the list. By the way, his partner is being assessed on the same money he is giving to her, which is double counting of the maintenance. I think the Minister of State gets the point.

Where is the effort to stop people being homeless? The only meaningful thing the Department has done is to guarantee that people's prospect of finding private rented accommodation in my area, the whole of south Dublin and huge parts of the country is now going to be totally impossible because the rents will all go up €3,000 or €3,200. It was very hard before, but now it just will not happen, so the likelihood of those people escaping from homelessness is gone. Everything the Government is seen to be doing - not lifting the thresholds and not controlling the rents - is making it more likely people will stay in this homelessness misery, in conditions that are totally unacceptable.

The Government could do something about it. It could stop evictions, put in real rent controls, take aggressive action against people who are land-hoarding and speculating, prioritise the provision of more social housing and raise the thresholds. There are a lot of things the Government could do, but it just does not seem to care. It seems as if the Government just wants to normalise this horrendous situation.

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