North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?
US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty Anti-Empire >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
Kathleen Stock?s Former University Fined Record ?585,000 for Failing to Uphold Free Speech in Trans ... Wed Mar 26, 2025 11:04 | Will Jones Kathleen Stock?s former university, the University of Sussex, has been fined a record ?585,000 after it was found to have "failed to uphold"?freedom of speech?and academic freedom as a result of its transgender policy.
The post Kathleen Stock’s Former University Fined Record ?585,000 for Failing to Uphold Free Speech in Trans Policy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Ministries of Silly Charts Wed Mar 26, 2025 09:00 | Caroline Ffiske Gender ideology is so obviously ludicrous that it has spawned hundreds of silly charts across the public and private sector to try to get itself taken seriously. Caroline Ffiske takes a look at some of the worst.
The post Ministries of Silly Charts appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Irrelevance of Science and Statistics Wed Mar 26, 2025 07:00 | James Alexander It is a sad reflection on our age that the line 'lies, damned lies and statistics' was forgotten, says Prof James Alexander. Good political sense can never be grounded on statistics, but only on history and criticism.
The post The Irrelevance of Science and Statistics appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Wed Mar 26, 2025 00:18 | Richard Eldred A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Publish or Be Damned Tue Mar 25, 2025 19:00 | John MacNab Academic publishing is in crisis. Now a multi-billion dollar industry where researchers pay journals to publish their papers, the old guarantees of quality and accuracy have been stripped away, says John MacNab.
The post Publish or Be Damned appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Western Europeans Deprived of Defense, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Mar 25, 2025 06:04 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?125 Fri Mar 21, 2025 11:48 | en
The London Virtual Summit for Ukraine Fri Mar 21, 2025 11:19 | en
After Ukraine, Iran?, by Thierry Meyssan Thu Mar 20, 2025 11:34 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?124 Sat Mar 15, 2025 05:56 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Focus Ireland Said The New Record Total Of People Homeless Shows That Govt. Policy Is Still Failing To Tackle The Deepening Crisis
national |
housing |
press release
Thursday February 28, 2019 22:36 by Focus - Focus Ireland

Press Release - Focus Ireland - Feb 27th 2019
Focus Ireland has said that new figures reporting a total of 9,987 people homeless in January show the Government is still failing to do enough to ease the crisis.
The figures show a rise of 2.3% (234 people) in one month alone from 9,753 in Dec to 9,987 in Jan 2019.
The figures from the Department of the Environment also show that 3,624 of the number homeless are children (in 1,614 families)
 Focus Ireland has said the Government policy must make a much greater shift away from delivering more homeless emergency accommodation and towards delivering a lot more social housing.
The charity said delivering more social housing would also help people struggling to find someone to live in the rental market as it would directly result in freeing up many units in the private rented market that are currently used for HAP tenancies.
The charity also said the current situation would be much worse without the work of Focus Ireland as it helped over 400 families to secure a home last year – in partnership with the State – and move on from homelessness. However, the latest figures show that the crisis is deepening despite this good work by state agencies and NGO’s as the Government continues to shy away from tackling the deeper issues which are driving more people into homelessness.
Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said:
“We are still deeply concerned that the Government’s primary response to the crisis of family homelessness is to build more ‘Hubs’ and other emergency accommodation. The Government admits that Hubs are only a ‘first response’ but there is still no sign of them delivering a second, substantive response which is adequate to the crisis we are facing. As a result families are being trapped in emergency homeless accommodation for longer and longer periods. They are not there by ‘choice’, they are there because they are not being offered secure and affordable homes.”
He added:
“Families need homes not more hubs. We know this can be done as Focus Ireland provided over 150 homes last year in partnership with the State and through the support of our donors. However, the Government is still not delivering enough social housing and we are in very real danger of the short term fix of homeless hubs becoming a long-term situation. Government figures show that too many local authorities are failing to meet the social housing targets, and where the target is met that only highlights how inadequate the targets are as they are far too low given the critical demand for such housing. Governments in the past were able to deliver social and affordable housing much more effectively, even when the country was much poorer than it is today. We need greater ambition and greater delivery of housing.
Focus Ireland research also shows that even a short period of homelessness often has a very negative impact on families – and their children. Over 40% of the families who are homeless in Dublin are now in emergency accommodations for over a year. We strongly believe the Government needs to urgently rethink its approach.”
Meanwhile, Focus Ireland said that its own figures show that the numbers of families becoming newly homeless each month in Dublin has nearly doubled in one month rising as 95 families became newly homeless in Dublin in January compared to 50 in December. Focus Ireland said that each year there is normally a seasonal drop in the number of people who are homeless in December and then a spike in the numbers in the January or February figures. This is due to a number of reasons such as extended family taking in people over Christmas but the situation is not sustainable and the families return to homeless accommodation after a short period.
Focus Ireland also noted that these figures do not include all those families who have been assessed as homeless by local authorities and are receiving homeless support funded by the Department of Housing. The Minister’s still unexplained decision to exclude from the monthly figures homeless families who are accommodated in premises ‘with their own front’ door means that the monthly figures show only part of the problem. Focus Ireland called on the Department of Housing to publish the number of families living in ‘own door’ emergency accommodation, which is the practice in England and Scotland where similar properties are used to accommodate homeless families.
Focus Ireland has also again called for two key actions which must be taken by the government to help ease the crisis.
- Develop a specific family homelessness strategy given the scale of this crisis. Focus Ireland has called for the government to introduce a specific sub-strategy for addressing the needs of homeless families. There must be a real impetus when there are children and vulnerable people involved, and we think there has been a failure to grasp that by the government.
- Set a cast iron deadline that no family or person will be homeless for longer than six months. This will require new measures to prevent men, women and children losing their homes and improved measures to help those who are already homeless. Many are trapped in hotels or bed and breakfasts in one room with their children.
Media Contact: Roughan Mac Namara – 086 85 15 117
|