Galway homeless crisis spiralling out of control

Galway’s homelessness crisis continues to spiral out of control, with more than 1,000 people turning to a local charity for help over the past year.

The figures provided by homelessness organisation COPE Galway show that in the first eleven months of the year, a total of 176 families experienced homelessness in 2015 – up by one-third on the 134 families in all of 2014.

Charity chairman John Concannon said the main factor contributing to homelessness in Galway is a reliance on the rental market. That is forcing many people to stay in tourist accommodation – at the moment, 50 adults and children are staying in hostels in Galway. Another 33 people are sleeping rough in the city.

“The homeless crisis in Galway has deteriorated even further during 2015, from levels experienced in 2014. The main factor contributing to this is the reliance on the private rental market for housing, and the inaccessibility of this market for vulnerable people and families.

“COPE Galway worked with approximately 640 households experiencing homelessness in the first eleven months of 2015. This has included 176 families.

“In 2015, we worked with over 1,000 people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. The flow of families into homelessness in the past year has been especially concerning. We worked with 176 families in 2015, compared to 134 in 2014 (a 31% increase).

“The housing crisis has also resulted in people staying longer in our emergency hostels, thereby making it more difficult for others to access this emergency support.

“The average stay per household in our Fairgreen men’s hostel was 67 nights – compared to 53 nights for 2014. In Osterley Lodge, our women’s hostel, the average length of stay was 74 nights, compared with 52 for 2014.

“Access to housing for these vulnerable people has been almost non-existent. In March, there were 24 three-bed properties advertised on Daft.ie – none of which were renting at levels available from State supplements,” he added.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.