Galway East Sinn Féin’s Louis O’Hara has said an emergency response is needed to address rising levels of homelessness.
O’Hara was speaking after the Residential Tenancies Board reported that 4518 eviction notices were issued to households in Q3 of this year, including 255 in County Galway.
He said the RTB have released the Q3 eviction notice figures. From July to September, 4518 households were issued with notices of termination by their landlords, including 255 in County Galway. That brings the total number of eviction notices issued this year to 15,006, with 827 of those issued in County Galway.
“In the absence of the Government providing an adequate supply of social and affordable homes, the high number of eviction notices is leading to increased homeless presentations and increased homelessness. To make matters worse, there continues to be a waiting list to access emergency accommodation in Galway, leaving many people with nowhere to go.
“Last week’s homeless figures clearly showed that eviction from the private rental sector is the primary driver of family homelessness.
“For several years, Sinn Féin have been calling on Minister O’Brien to introduce an emergency package of measures to address the growing homeless crisis.
“This includes using emergency planning and procurement powers and new building technologies to deliver at least 1000 extra social homes over 12 months to end homelessness for the over 55s in a single year and significantly reduce family and child homelessness.
“It also means expanding the tenant-in-situ scheme for both social and affordable rental homes. Some progress is being made on this scheme, but it is still too slow, particularly with respect to the cost-rental tenants-in-situ.
“The Government will also need to reconsider its opposition to a temporary reintroduction of the ban on no-fault evictions. It is likely that when October’s homelessness figures are published the Government will have breached the 13,000 figure of people in Department of Housing-funded emergency accommodation.
“The fact that not a single new measure was included in Budget 2024 to reduce homelessness shows that the Government’s actions don’t match their words on the homelessness crisis.
“This RTB report is yet another wake-up call that the Government needs to act, and act urgently, if they want to avoid further rises in homelessness in the months ahead.”
