Housing Minister ‘determined’ to stop homelessness rising

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Housing Minister James Browne has said he is “determined” to stop homelessness from rising, after figures hit another record high.

Department of Housing figures published on Friday showed the number of people using emergency accommodation rose to 15,915 last month, 4,958 of whom were children.

The number of people accessing emergency accommodation has been steadily increasing for years as governments grapple with solving Ireland’s supply-constricted housing market.

Asked whether the homeless figures would continue to rise during his time in office, Mr Browne said he wanted to reduce the numbers “as quickly as possible”.

“What I am determined (to do) is to get them to stop rising and to get those numbers right back down,” he said before Cabinet on Tuesday.

“One person in emergency accommodation is one too many and we do have, once again, record numbers. To me, it is totally unacceptable.

“They are all families who need homes, and my determination is to get that supply going.

“The only way we are going to end homelessness is getting rents down. The only way to get rents down is through supply, supply, supply.

“But the reality is, we’re not delivering enough homes for the amount of people who need them and this is the consequence we have, is those homeless numbers.

“I just want to get these numbers down as quickly as possible.”

Responding to calls from the opposition to pump money into the tenant-in-situ scheme to increase the number of people prevented from becoming homeless, Mr Browne said that was a temporary measure.

“Tenant-in-situ was only ever meant to be a last resort and also as a temporary measure when we lifted the eviction ban.

“I think every political party in opposition has a plan to wind down tenant-in-situ, because you’re using significant amount of state funding not to deliver more housing stock, but to buy up existing housing stock.”

He said that €696 million capital funding approved by Cabinet on Tuesday would fund a range of housing measures that would help buy second-hand homes.

The funding will be used to help deliver more than 4,600 new social and affordable homes, of which more than 3,700 will be new builds through a variety of means.

This includes funding grants under the vacant property refurbishment grant scheme, drawdown of grants by homeowners under the enhanced defective concrete block remediation scheme, and the development contribution waivers to incentivise more housing supply.

“There will be more funding for second-hand acquisitions, as a result of the additional funding that we’ve secured here today, but it is not a long-term solution, it’s not even a medium-term solution,” Mr Browne said.

“The only solution is to get more social houses built.”