More than 300 people accessed homeless services in Galway in August, according to official figures released this week, a situation which has been described as "unacceptable" by People Before Profit Galway.
The figures reveal that 311 people in Galway accessed homeless services, compared with 419 in Cork, 255 in Limerick, and 112 in Waterford. People Before Profit Galway's Joe Loughnane said it revealed that homeless services were being "pushed to their limits".
"There simply aren’t enough affordable houses being built," he said. "This means that people have to stay dependent on these already-stretched services. It’s a vicious cycle.”
He has called on the Government to stop relying on private developers "to occasionally build public housing". He said: "This would mean our current Government would have to end its love affair with the free market and realise that for-profit property developers are simply not interested in solving this problem."
Mr Loughnane is further calling on the Government to declare a national housing emergency, which would enable funds to be released for local authorities to start building public housing; the creation of a national construction agency to take control of building supply; and for a ‘right to housing’ in the Constitution, so governments would be obliged to consider whether or not a decision or policy is going to make it harder for people to access housing. "This would go a long way," he said, "to addressing the Government’s comfortable relationship with private property developers."
