'Horrendous situation' - Calls for homeless crisis to be addressed 

Labour Party candidate for Cork City South West, today called on the government to take urgent action to address the housing crisis.

Laura Harmon said: “The number of people in emergency accommodation has reached a record high of 12,847, including 3,829 children. This is a disgrace. Children should not have to grow up in overcrowded or substandard housing. The Government must outline a plan to protect children this winter.

“It’s devastating to see an increase of 64 children living in emergency accommodation in July. 

"As families prepare to return to schools, too many are now facing the unbelievable prospect of doing their homework on a hotel room floor, trying to wash clothes in a bathroom sink and having no where to prepare school lunches.

“Children face long commutes to attend their school from the emergency accommodation they are stay in, while others are now taking up places in new schools, facing the prospects of having to make new friends, get to know new teachers. It’s a horrendous situation that Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have got us to.

“The housing crisis consistently comes up when I’m knocking on doors in Ballincollig, Bishopstown, Glasheen and Togher. The Government needs to firstly implement Labour’s plan for an emergency eviction ban. They need to build affordable housing and provide support for families in emergency accommodation.

“In Cork, 532 women and men were depending on emergency accommodation in Cork in June 2023 — the highest on record. There were 196 children in homeless accommodation in Cork and Kerry combined in June 2023 (a 35% increase in 12 months). These figures don’t reflect the full scale of the homeless crisis. People rough sleeping, those in squats, parents and children in refuges, those in direct provision and people staying with family or friends are not counted.

''The Government must also work with local authorities and housing providers to find long-term solutions to the housing crisis and dereliction must be tackled in Cork city. Labour have repeatedly called for the reintroduction of the emergency eviction ban, we need to see this happen now to assure people that they will be kept in their homes this winter.” 

New figures released by the RTB recently show that there were 5,735 eviction notices issued to tenants in the second quarter of this year, almost 1,000 more than the first quarter.