Report reveals scale of West’s homeless crisis

The national housing charity prevented more than 1,000 people – including over 400 children – from becoming homeless in the West last year.

New figures from Threshold show that its Tenancy Protection Service saved 1,014 people from becoming homeless in the west of Ireland in the last year.

The figure was included in the Galway Tenancy Protection Service Annual Report 2016-17, which was launched last week by Minister of State for Community Affairs, Natural Resources, and Digital Development, Seán Kyne.

The Galway-based service opened in June 2016 and provides advice and support to households at risk of homelessness in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.

Almost half of the 534 households supported by the service were families, and a total of 406 children were prevented from becoming homeless.

The report found that the two biggest factors that threatened tenancies were tenants being issued with notices of termination requiring them to leave their rented property (35%), and rents being increased by their landlord (31%).

Threshold Regional Services Manager, Diarmaid O’Sullivan revealed that many of the families supported by the Galway Tenancy Protection Service were low and middle-income households, who were finding it increasingly difficult to access affordable, secure private rented accommodation.

“The in-depth advice and advocacy support we provided made the difference between tenants remaining in their homes and falling into homelessness, with the human misery that brings,” he said.

Recent figures from the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government show that in the region of 200 homeless adults are living in emergency accommodation in the west – with a significant growth in the numbers of people sleeping rough, particularly in Galway city.

“Historically, homelessness has primarily been a problem in urban areas but it is no longer a phenomenon confined to Galway city,” Mr O’Sullivan added.

“Severe housing shortages in towns such as Loughrea, Ballinasloe, Tuam, Gort, Castlebar, Westport and Roscommon Town have increased the risk of households becoming homeless right across the west.

“While the majority of those contacting us were from the Galway area (88%), 6% were living in Mayo and 2% in Roscommon,” he revealed.

In launching the report, Minister Kyne acknowledged that having a roof over your head is something the vast majority of people always took for granted.

“The concept of homelessness was for somebody else – for most of us it was unimaginable. Unfortunately for an increasing number of citizens the concept is not only real it’s actually happened,” he said.

“Even the risk of losing your home is hugely traumatic. The worry about the effects on children, the vulnerability, the damage to self-esteem and confidence all on top of the day to day challenges life without a home brings, doesn’t bear thinking about.

For those 1,000 people, Thresholds TPS has prevented such an ordeal, and for that we must thank and congratulate their hard-working staff and management,” he added.

Minister Kyne also referred to the introduction of a Rent Pressure Zone in Galway earlier this year, which the report said, had a calming effect on the rate of rent increases.

“I had a number of discussions with Minister Coveney in the run up to the decision to include Galway City in the scheme,” said the Minister.

“The four per cent limit on rent increases has given breathing-space to hard pressed tenants, but ironically, some of the more conscientious landlords who kept their rent levels low for long term tenants are now looking at rents 50% higher in similar properties. This is inevitably going to end in a difficult situation for both the landlord and tenant.

“The Government has committed huge resources towards the housing crisis. It has challenged the Local Authorities to provide both social housing and the facilitation for an expansion in the provision of private housing.

“The streamlining of the planning process for housing is already having an effect on the timescales for delivery so we must keep the pressure on to deliver homes for our citizens,” he added.

Minister Kyne also said that last week’s approval of 23 social houses for Galway city was ‘a small but significant step’ on that road – and he added that plans for Ardaun, to the east of the city, were well on the way and would hopefully provide approximately 2,000 houses in a new community there.