Prioritise families when it comes to housing, says West Cork's Towse

Families with children should be prioritised for housing, a county councillor has said, after it emerged that people are spending up to a year in emergency accommodation in West Cork.

Cork County Council’s housing report showed that 28 people were in emergency accommodation across the western division, which covers West Cork and Bandon-Kinsale. Five had been in emergency accommodation for between six and 12 months, while one person had been there for more than a year.

Across Cork county, 92 people were in emergency accommodation, including nine who had been there for longer than 12 months. Social Democrats councillor Isobel Towse raised the figures at a meeting of the council’s western divisional committee.

Ms Towse said she had been in regular contact with a family that had been in emergency accommodation for almost nine months.

She said both children in the family had recently been diagnosed with developmental delays.

“We know the devastating impact that homelessness has on children,” she said.

Ms Towse called for families with children to be prioritised when homes become available.

“There’s no excuse for a child to be in emergency accommodation that long,” 

she said.

Independent Ireland councillor Daniel Sexton said he was dealing with another family living in a shelter and described such cases as heartbreaking. “It is a roof over their heads, but it’s not great for the development of the children either,” he said. Mr Sexton said more national funding was needed to help councils move families into secure accommodation.

He called for everything possible to be done to provide families with somewhere safe and dry where children could settle into school.

Council housing officials said significant work was being carried out to move people out of emergency accommodation as quickly as possible.

However, they said the accommodation offered had to be appropriate and that not every home becoming available would be suitable for every household. Officials agreed to discuss the case raised by Ms Towse with her following the meeting.

Of approximately 2,100 council-owned homes in the division, 13 were vacant. Three were undergoing repairs, six were going through the tender process, and tenants had been selected for the remaining four.

• Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme