This is a crisis!

A NORTHSIDE frontline support group is calling for the city’s homelessness problem to be declared a national crisis following revelations of an

?¬18.5 million funding shortfall.

Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) are warning that services are already so stretched that people will die on Dublin’s streets this winter unless action is taken now.

And last week’s confirmation that the city’s homeless budget has a projected deficit of over

?¬18 million has highlighted that the problem is getting worse.

Dublin City Council has told councillors that the shortfall has been caused by a growth in households becoming homeless, despite the introduction of measures to address the situation.

DCC senior management plans to allocate over

?¬5 million from a budget contingency fund and will seek a proportional amount from the other three Dublin Local Authorities as an interim measure to plug the deficit hole.

The council has also warned the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government of the seriousness of the shortfall, and its implications for services.

ICHH Director Anthony Flynn described the amount of the shortfall as

“astonishing

?.

“We have a very serious problem on our hands,

? he added.

“The Minister is now putting lives at risk across the city and I am urging the Taoiseach to intervene.

“Homelessness across the city is at crisis point and has severely worsened in 2015.

?

A recent head-count of the number of people availing of crisis and temporary accommodation found 63 new families presented as homeless in Dublin during the month of April.

The number of families residing in commercial hotels in the Dublin region was 295 and Depaul charity said it worked with 116 homeless children in Dublin during the first four months of 2015, an 87 per cent increase on the same period last year.

ICHH say 75 families were made homeless in June and there was now over 1,100 children registered in emergency accommodation.

“With the clear increase of children and families presenting as homeless we now need to declare a crisis.

“This can no longer be brushed under the carpet,

? said Flynn who is contacting newly elected Lord Mayor, Críona Ní Dhalaigh to organise crisis talks on the issue.

“We cannot stand idly by whilst central Government puts lives at risk across our city,

? he added.

Focus Ireland has also warned that the Dublin homeless budget shortfall will put families and single people at greater risk of sleeping rough.

However the charity said it wasn’t just central Government to blame as part of the shortfall was caused by the city’s four local authorities proposing to slash their own contribution to the homeless budget from

?¬21 million in 2014 to just

?¬13 million this year.

“Every 50 families becoming homeless costs

?¬3 million a year just to provide emergency accommodation – and more than 50 families are losing their homes each month,

? said said Director of Advocacy at Focus Ireland, Mike Allen.

“We have to get a grip on this situation.

“The family homeless crisis must now be seen as a national emergency and the Government needs to fund the costs arising from this separately from the annual homelessness budget to avoid a deepening crisis.

?

Fianna Fáil Group Leader on Dublin City Council, Cllr Paul McAuliffe, blamed the huge shortfall on a central Government U-turn.

“The Government need to clarify why they indicated last December that they were willing to fund all necessary services and yet they have now left a massive

?¬18.5 million shortfall,

? said.

“The impact of this decision will mean that there will be no funding for any emergency accommodation in the final months of this year.

“The Minister is effectively turfing-out more than 2,000 people in emergency accommodation.

“The Minister must agree to our request for an all-party meeting in order to resolve this issue and ensure emergency accommodation remains a safety net in our capital city.

?