Support Focus Ireland's Right To A Home Campaign

national | public consultation / irish social forum | press release

Thursday November 13, 2003 18:27

by Roughan Mac Namara - Focus Ireland

rmcnamara at focusireland dot ie

Right to a Home Campaign

Nearly 6,000 homeless people feel nobody in power is listening to them. Three years into a Government strategy to tackle the problem it continues to get worse - Especially for families who are homeless. The official number of homeless people has increased from 5,234 to 5,581 since 1999. Meanwhile a record total of 48,413 households are stuck on housing waiting lists - That’s about 140,000 people in total.

Focus Ireland’s Right to a Home campaign is calling for urgent Government action to tackle this growing crisis. You can add your voice to this campaign by visiting: http://www.focusireland.org taking a minute to read our campaign demands and then issue the letter to all you local TD's at the touch of a button.

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FOCUS IRELAND LAUNCH RIGHT TO A HOME CAMPAIGN AS SURVEY SHOWS 63% BLAME HOMELESSNESS ON LACK OF GOVERNMENT ACTION

· Internet campaign urges people to contact their local TD’s calling for action on homelessness and the housing crisis as survey also reveals:

· 77% believe housing should be provided for people who are homeless regardless of cost
· 78% said there’s not nearly enough is being done to help people who are homeless

A national survey carried out on behalf of Focus Ireland has revealed a massive 63% of the public blame homelessness and the housing crisis on a lack of Government action on the issue. Focus Ireland maintains this shows the public has become even further disillusioned with political resolve to tackle the problem as in the final year of a 3-year Government homelessness strategy the numbers of people who are homeless continue to rise. (Latest Govt. figures show an increase from 5,234 in 1999 to 5,581 in 2002).

Speaking at the launch of the Focus Ireland Right To A Home Campaign at the Dublin Writers’ Museum, (Thur Nov 13th) Chief Executive Declan Jones said: “We’re in the final year of this strategy yet the number of people who are homeless is rising instead of falling. Meanwhile, the housing crisis is also deepening as there’s record total of over 48,000 households (About 140,000 people) on housing waiting lists. This can’t be allowed to continue and we want people to support our campaign to show politicians they want this crisis needs to be dealt with effectively for once and for all.”

People can log on to www.focusireland.org and key in their constituency details and then send our prewritten letter outlining 3 specific demands to their local TD’s urging them to take action. Anyone not on the internet should contact Focus Ireland directly and a letter will be issued to their local TDs on their behalf after sending them full details of the campaign. The campaign is calling for political action to legislate for a right to housing. Focus Ireland maintains that housing is a basic human right and Ireland must honour its international obligations that guarantee a right to housing and legislate to remove the inequalities in the Irish housing system. Focus Ireland stressed that if action was taken to guarantee a right to housing this would make it harder for this government and successive governments to drag its heels when dealing with housing and homelessness.

The demands also include a call for urgent action to cut the record housing waiting lists of 48,413 households. In its Pre-Budget Submission Focus Ireland has called for the social housing budget to be tripled to at least €1.7 Billion in 2004. This will help produce an output of at least 7,000 Local Authority housing units in 2004 which will at least begin to tackle the massive backlog on the housing waiting lists.

Focus Ireland is also calling for an increase in the amount of social housing provided under Section V of the Planning and Development Act as 85% of households on the housing waiting lists have an annual income of less than €15,000 and could never afford to buy a home of their own on that limited amount. The third demand is seeking effective action to reduce the growing numbers of young people and families with children who are homeless.

The latest figures (Counted In 2002) show a total of 640 families with 1140 children who are homeless in the Dublin area alone. That’s an increase of 100 families and 150 children since the last Counted In report in 1999. Recent DOE figures show there’s nearly 300 children homeless as part of families in the rest of the country. This clearly shows the problem of families with children becoming homeless is a growing nationwide problem. Declan Jones said: “The reality is people are now remaining homeless for longer than ever before all over the country. The average length of time many families with children spend living in emergency bed and breakfast accommodation has shot up from only 20 days in 1993 to a current average of 18 months. There are some families who are stuck living in B&Bs for years at a time.” Mr. Jones said this type of accommodation is particularly unsuitable for families with children as they have no cooking facilities, are often cramped into one or two rooms and the children have no proper place to play or even do their homework

Focus Ireland is calling for an end to the practice of housing families with children in B&B accommodation other than for emergencies and to ensure their stay is no longer than one month before move-on to more appropriate accommodation is secured. There then needs to be secure accommodation for families leaving emergency and B&B accommodation to move into on a permanent basis.

Anyone who doesn’t have access to the internet can contact Focus Ireland (quoting your address and local constituency) at 9-12 High Street, Dublin 8 or Ph: 01 8815 900 to sign up to the campaign. Focus Ireland will then send you on a copy of the letter and also issue it to your local TDs on your behalf. The campaign will also be highlighted by 50,000 postcards distributed through the Picture works network of free postcards in venues nationwide and at Focus Ireland’s services and housing developments in Dublin, Limerick and Waterford.

The Focus Ireland Right To A Home campaign advocacy web site is designed and hosted by the 54 Degrees company Tel: 01 4983822 Email: info@54degrees.com

(Editors note: Survey consisted of 500 people nationwide)

For further information please contact:

Roughan Mac Namara,
Focus Ireland,
Ph: 01 88 15 900 or 086 85 15 117