Access to housing for all and ending homelessness

Having a roof over your head is a basic need for everybody. We live in one of the wealthiest economies in the world, yet people on average incomes cannot afford to buy an average house or rent an average apartment. There is something fundamentally wrong with that situation. It is the one issue that affects everyone, as we all need housing, but it is also the one issue that the Government has not solved since 2011.

Yes, some progress is being made in the supply of houses, but it is not enough. The targets set by the Government in its Housing for All plan, are not being met.

Young people must defer buying a house into their 30s and many are still living with their parents when they should be in their own house.

The shortage of housing and the cost of buying or renting a house means that more and more people are falling into homelessness.

In the nine years to December, the number of people homeless in Ireland has increased almost four times. There were 3,738 (including 880 children) homeless in December 2014. In December 2023, there were 13,313 people homeless, including 3,962 children.

By January 2024, this figure had increased to 13, 531 (4,027 children).

In Galway City and County, there were 90 adults homeless in December 2014, and this increased to 310 by January 2024.

Starkly, in the West region of Galway Mayo and Roscommon, the number of homeless families rose from 7 (13 children) to 110 (234 children) between December 2014 and January 2024.

I have worked as a volunteer with COPE Galway for the last three years, and before that, I managed COPE Galway’s emergency homeless hostel through the Winter period of 2020/21 and I have seen the effects of homelessness first-hand.

We have to do better.

The answer is simply increasing the supply of houses at one end and stopping people from losing their homes at the other end.

I will be strongly advocating that:

• The Government meets its own housing supply targets to start with, and reforms the      planning system so that it serves the needs of the many, those looking for a roof over their heads, over the spurious objections of the few.

• For the refurbishment and repurposing of vacant or underutilised buildings including office space to provide housing,

• For the reintroduction of a temporary moratorium on evictions.