Focus Ireland calls for more investment in social housing if a serious crisis is to be avoided.
The latest annual report from Focus Ireland shows that the number of homeless people in Ireland continues to grow.
Focus Ireland wants greater investment in social housing in order to combat what it calls the chaos and misery of the current housing crisis. The organisation says that the government three year strategy to tackle homelessness is failing.
Once again, the statistics make for grim reading.
Minister Noel Ahern said that Focus Ireland's criticism of government policy is unfair and that investment to assist those in homelessness has increased to €50 million this year.
The number of homeless people across the country increased to five and a half thousand in 2002. There has also been a change in the demographics of those becoming homeless. Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, President of Focus Ireland, points out that the vast majority of properties built in the last ten years are very expensive private houses. This means that there is a large group of people, who in the past could buy, can now not afford to purchase a home. There is a lack of rental properties available both in the private rental market and social housing.
Declan Jones, Chief Executive of Focus Ireland, says that the government is more than ten thousand units short of their target.
Unless they radically pump in more money, they're going to cause a very serious crisis in relation to housing.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 23 July 2003. The reporter is Sinéad Crowley.
