Record homelessness stats show Housing for All is failing
- Eviction ban must be introduced immediately
- Local authorities need power to protect people at risk
Labour housing spokesperson Rebecca Moynihan has said that new record levels of homelessness announced today (Friday, 26th August) clearly demonstrate that the Government’s Housing for All plan is rapidly failing fast.
With now 10,568 people without homes in Ireland, Senator Moynihan said more must be done to tackle the housing crisis.
Calling on the Government to introduce an immediate ban on evictions, to empower local authorities to buy more housing when HAP tenants are in situ and to give people the same tenancy rights as businesses, Senator Moynihan said the government must act with urgency or risk this shameful record spiralling even further out of control.
Senator Moynihan said:
“It is a national shame at a time of rising cost of living we also have record levels of people and families without a home. It is not right and more needs to be done. We have the resources but not the political will and that needs to change. We need to see local authorities empowered to buy homes where families avail of the HAP scheme to ensure that they are protected from small landlords selling up.
“We need to do everything we can to protect people from falling into homelessness in the first place. Government must get real and stop seeing housing as a commodity. Housing is a human right. The failure of the government to put in place measures to protect renters is having enormous social consequences across the generations and we have to say enough is enough.
“There is a whole suite of measures available to the government if they would listen. A good start is the introduction of an immediate ban on evictions to stop people entering homelessness from the private market, tighter grounds for evictions, a temporary rent freeze and for tenants to be given the same rights as businesses. It is not rocket science.
“The Labour Party has consistently offered genuine solutions to help people most at risk of homelessness. Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill will give renters greater security and Labour’s Homeless Families Bill will require housing authorities to regard the best interests of the child as paramount. These measures would make a real and measurable difference to many worried families and we are calling on the Government to legislate for them before it is too late.”