The homeless and housing charity, Peter McVerry Trust, has called for legislation to be brought forward to address spiralling rents.
The charity made the call following the publication of the latest RTB Rent Index report which shows rents rising at 8.6 per cent per annum nationally.
Peter McVerry Trust’s CEO, Pat Doyle, said that the rate of rental inflation is excessive and pushing people into homelessness: “This latest report from the RTB shows that rent increases are spiralling far beyond the rate of inflation," he said. "In fact, since March 2015 rents have increased on average by 8.6 per cent nationally, over the same period the Consumer Price Index showed a decrease of 0.3 per cent. The rates of increase are excessive and directly pushing people into homelessness.”
Mr Doyle says unless smart, fair, and effective rent certainty measures are secured, costs will continue to spiral and more families will become homeless. “Rent certainty is a critical component in overhauling the rental system in Ireland," he said. "If rents are unaffordable they will continue to contribute to homelessness, they will make security of tenure impossible for large swathes of renters as the ability to pay rent is increasingly diminished. They are also impacting on the broader economy.
“Next week the Committee on Housing and Homelessness will finalise its report. Among the many critical measures it needs to recommend is a call to urgently legislate to link rents to the rate of the CPI. Without such legislation the rental system will remain dysfunctional.”
