Almost 250 adults were homeless in Galway at Christmas

Almost 250 adults in the city spent Christmas in emergency accommodation, the most recent homelessness figures have revealed.

According to the City Council’s Housing Report for December 2021, this number comprised of 41 families with 91 children – with a further 14 families housed in the Westside modular housing project and nine families in Corrib Haven Family Hub. Thirteen single people were also in emergency accommodation at year-end.

It was a shocking statistic to read that 242 adults – not to mention children – spent Christmas without a home, said local Councillor Níall McNelis who said it highlighted the pressure people were coming under as the country emerged from Covid lockdowns.

“Post-pandemic, housing is the biggest issue that faces us and it needs to be addressed. The high rents in the city are causing huge issues and it’s extremely serious to be seeing that number of families and young children being evicted from their homes,” he said.

This comes as it was found that the average rents in Galway City had skyrocketed by 8.8% last year – up to €1,504 at the end of 2021 according to the latest Daft report, representing a 115.5% increase in a decade.

The average rent in Galway for a one-bedroom apartment was €1,026, up 11.9%; €1,207 for a two-bedroom house, up 11.5%; and €1,407 for a three-bedroom house, up 11.6%.

Cllr McNelis said these figures showed that Rent Pressure Zone legislation – which states that rent cannot increase by more than 2% annually – had failed to address the crisis in any meaningful way.

“It is clear from these figures that there are widespread breaches of Rent Pressure Zones which are unfit for purpose. Rents in Galway are soaring, renters cannot save for a deposit for a house and are trapped paying through the teeth just to keep a roof over their heads. It is not affordable to working people and Government need to grab the bull by the horns and introduce an immediate rent freeze.

“We need a rent freeze until supply catches up with demand. Stock remains critically low. There were just 188 homes available to rent in the region on February 1, the second lowest ever in a series extending back to 2006 – the pre-covid average during 2019 was 600,” said Cllr McNelis.

This was despite a recent report from the Northern and Western Regional Assembly (NWRA) showing there were 44,000 commercial and residential properties vacant in Connacht-Ulster.

“If we are serious about tackling the housing crisis and about regenerating small towns in the county, we need to utilise those vacant units for housing and give people the opportunity to live in them. They would also provide an opportunity for people in the city to relocate to the county,” said Cllr McNelis.

“Housing for All [Government policy] isn’t worth the paper it’s written on when we see the depths of the crisis shown once again by this Daft report. The Government must commit to increasing its cost rental targets to deliver affordable rental homes taking account of the true reality of what is needed.”