Over 6,700 People Now Homeless In Ireland

Over 6,700 people are homeless throughout Ireland, according to new figures from the Government.

Focus Ireland has reported that 65 families became newly homeless in Dublin in September. Overall, 736 families have become homeless in the city during the first nine months of this year.

The organisation is calling on the Government to ensure that the strategy for the private rented market – that is currently being drafted as one of the pillars of Rebuilding Ireland – has to include measures to help stabilise rents in the short-term.

Director of Advocacy, Mike Allen, said: "There must also be action to stop the number of landlords leaving the business. The only step taken on this issue in the Budget was the 5% increased relief for landlords which is unlikely to change the mind of the increasing number of landlords selling – which is one of the main reasons many people are becoming homeless as many of the landlords are being forced to sell up by banks and other financial institutions.

"Most of these houses were purchased using special 'buy to let' mortgages. Now that the investment has gone wrong it should not be the tenant who suffers. The government should use the opportunity of the legislation now before the Dáil to ensure that where a bank is repossessing a property from a 'buy to let' loan they must honour the tenancy agreement and sell the property as a rental with the tenant in place."

"We need to stop the constant flow of families and single people becoming homeless. Our frontline staff have seen first-hand that the two key reasons families are becoming homeless is one, landlords are selling up and getting out of the business, and two, rising rents. Both these issues are within the power of the government to tackle and while they have taken some actions they have clearly not done enough, fast enough."

(LM/JP)