Biggest changes in access to emergency accommodation in four decades rammed through Dáil
Biggest changes in access to emergency accommodation in four decades rammed through Dáil - The Labour Party
- Changes to 1988 Housing Act only taken to massage down homeless figures
- Vulnerable people will now be ineligible for local authority safety net
- Tightening the legal definition of who qualifies for emergency accommodation is a gatekeeping strategy
Labour’s housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan TD has called out the Minister for Housing’s blatant attempt to massage down homeless figures through changes to the 1988 Housing Act.
Yesterday evening (July 8th), the Dáil was given only two hours to debate the first and largest change to the laws regarding access to emergency accommodation in four decades.
Under the Government’s changes approved yesterday, strict, arbitrary rules around eligibility and access to emergency accommodation are now codified.
Vulnerable people will now no longer have access to the safety net used by local authorities before these changes to protect them from rough sleeping.
Instead, previous rules will now be replaced with a highly restrictive statutory safety net that caps night-time shelter at only two nights.
Deputy Sheehan has called out Government’s attempt to massage down homelessness figures, charging that the approved changes will see an increase in rough sleeping.
Deputy Sheehan said:
“The Minister has made the first and largest overhaul of legislation regarding access to emergency accommodation in over four decades to save his own political skin.
“Under his leadership, 17,447 people are living in homelessness. We know that this figures only relates to the number of people accessing emergency accommodation, and does not reflect the true scale of the crisis from people rough sleeping.
“The attempt to change these rules is being done for a personal political win. It is a brazen attempt to massage down homeless figures and it will have the consequence of driving more and more vulnerable people into sleeping rough on our streets.
“What you can’t count, you cannot measure and that is very clearly what the Minister is not saying out loud but will be the result of these changes.
“Even the manner in which the Minister has gone about this is deceptive – employing a rarely used procedural device known as a Motion to Instruct which allows the Minister to introduce amendments that would ordinarily fall outside the strict, original scope of the Bill. It’s not the appropriate way to deal with such significant changes.
“That the Dáil would debate the first and most significant reform of homelessness legislation for the first time in forty years in only two hours beggars belief. It’s a clear attempt to stifle democratic debate and to insulate the Minister from accountability.
“This has to be called out. With a 50% increase in tenancy termination notices we know that the figures of those entering homelessness is going to continue to rise. To pull away the very last resort for so many vulnerable people – that of access to emergency accommodation – is sickening, wrong and is a damning inditement of this Government’s failure to get on top of our housing crisis.”