Over 130 families had to seek homeless help in Galway

More than 130 families – including 300 children – were given homeless assistance in Galway last year by housing charity COPE Galway, with the situation continuing to worsen.

The extent of Galway’s housing crisis is borne out in stark figures revealed in the charity’s Annual Report for 2014; 652 adults and their 311 children were affected by homelessness last year, but COPE was unable to accommodate 227 women with 280 children who requested refuge, due to lack of space.

A breakdown of the figures shows emergency accommodation was provided for a total of 260 households, comprising 181 single men, 56 single women, 27 lone parent families and 55 children.

The charity has now pleaded with landlords to consider accepting capped rents under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) and rent supplement levels – and forego up to €3,000 extra which they could achieve on the open rental market.

Chief Executive Officer Jacquie Horan said: “As an alternative to contributing to COPE Galway financially, landlords would forego the added rent available on the open market, in support of housing for those experiencing homelessness in our local community.

“For example, a landlord willing to forego an extra income of €3,000 per year could provide a house for a family facing homelessness, while continuing to receive an RAS rental income of €850 per month.”

She explained that the situation is continuing to worsen this year.

“Recent months have seen this situation worsen with an increasing number of families becoming homeless, resulting in a reliance on B&Bs and hotels to meet the emergency accommodation needs of some of these families. Our clients continue to experience significant difficulties in trying to secure housing.

“Unfortunately, this situation was not helped by the decision of the Department of Social Protection last February to keep rent supplement cap limits at the same levels as they have been since June 2013. This was despite an annual increase in rent by in excess of 10% for Galway City,” she said.

COPE Chairman, John Concannon, said the increase in homeless families – including ‘hidden homeless’ – over the past year was of particular concern.

“The flow of families into homelessness in the past year has been especially concerning. COPE Galway Family Support services worked with an average of 57 families per month during 2014.

“The reasons for these presentations varied from those at risk of homelessness who needed support to retain their accommodation, to those who had lost their accommodation and needed emergency housing.

“While there was an increase in the numbers of families provided with emergency accommodation by COPE Galway – up from 19 in 2013 to 25 in 2014 – what was more notable was the period of time these families remained in emergency accommodation, averaging 60 nights in 2014 compared to 49 in 2013, due to delays in accessing affordable rental accommodation.

“Another notable trend has been the numbers of families who are ‘hidden homeless’. These are families who have lost their own housing and are involuntarily sharing with family and friends. On December 1, 2014, COPE Galway was aware of 17 families in Galway in this situation.

“The single greatest issue experienced by clients of our homeless services over the past year is difficulty accessing housing.

“Due to a shortage of social housing our clients are mainly reliant on the private rental market. A shortage of housing in this sector, combined with ever-increasing rents, has contributed to a situation where more and more families are becoming homeless, and where individuals and families who do become homeless remain so for longer as they cannot find affordable accommodation.

“This resulted in an average increase in length of stay in our emergency hostels from six weeks in 2013 to eight weeks in 2014,” said Mr Concannon.