Homeless Galway families with babies staying in hotels

Homeless families with babies as young as one are being forced to stay in hotels because of a chronic housing shortage in Galway City.

Councillor Ollie Crowe made the claim at a meeting of Galway City Council last evening, as he called for the establishment of a housing task force to deal with the local authority accommodation crisis.

Cllr Crowe said that in recent weeks, serious housing issues had arisen in the city and it was incumbent on the local authority to best deal with the situation.

“There is a crisis in relation to a number of families staying in hotels. There needs to be a special unit or task force to try and deal with it.

“It’s difficult for the members here who have to deal with these queries on a daily basis, and for the limited housing staff. I find it very difficult that we’re putting children who haven’t reached their first birthday into difficult accommodation,” said Cllr Crowe.

Cllr Terry O’Flaherty said there is also a very big problem with landlords refusing to accept tenants who are in receipt of rent allowance.

Director of Services Tom Connell said the Council is attempting to deal with the problem of vacant local authority houses, and two tranches of funding – totalling €600,000 – have been provided by the Department of the Environment.

The Council’s Chief Executive, Brendan McGrath, said the Housing Department is under-resourced because of the embargo on hiring staff, and the Council as a whole is currently operating with 30% less staff than it was four years ago.

He said there is a supply problem with rental accommodation, and this is exacerbated by the huge influx of students, and landlords are less inclined to become involved in social leasing.

Read more in this week’s Connacht Sentinel