Government “going through the motions” on homelessness plan, warns Ó Broin

Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin has described the government’s action plan on child and family homelessness as “underwhelming”.

The Dublin Mid-West TD was responding to the publication of the action plan by the government on Wednesday.

The €20 million plan states that “prevention remains the priority, with actions in the plan designed to help families sustain tenancies and avoid entering homelessness.”

The document adds, “where homelessness cannot be prevented, the Plan focuses on protecting children’s well-being while in temporary accommodation;

“Importantly, the plan focuses also on supporting families to move as quickly as possible into secure, long-term housing.”

Minister for Housing James Browne stated “we have to do better, and I am determined to move beyond the text on paper to getting on with what needs to be done to provide secure homes and places to grow up and grow old in.

Ó Broin called the plan “deeply underwhelming.”

“It is long on identifying the problems but thin on real solutions to both reduce the number of families with children becoming homeless and get families with children out of emergency accommodation more quickly,” he stated.

“There is no reversal of the cuts to homeless prevention schemes like tenant-in-situ, no emergency ban on no-fault evictions, no increase in the discretionary thresholds for homeless HAP or its extension statewide and, crucially, no emergency measures to increase the supply of social and affordable homes both to prevent and end homelessness.”

“There is also no clarity on whether the €20 million of homeless budget allocation for homeless prevention is additional to the existing homeless services budget or what it is to be spent on. Given that the current budget is more than half a billion euros a year, the majority of which goes on emergency accommodation, €20 million for prevention is really a drop in the ocean,” he noted.

The Sinn Féin housing spokesperson said “once again, the government is failing to treat the homelessness crisis with the urgency it demands.”

“They have ignored Sinn Féin’s 12-point plan to end long-term homelessness. They have ignored the five key demands of the Homeless Policy Group,” he said.

“This launch smacks of a government going through the motions rather than taking the radical action needed to achieve their own target of ending long-term homelessness for singles and families with children by 2030.”