A “significant number” of people in emergency accommodation for homelessness “don’t have a housing right in Ireland”, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Harris claimed he was “shut down” when he said in November that Ireland’s “migration numbers are too high” as he doubled down on comments linking immigration to the high rate of homelessness.
The Fine Gael leader said he was not trying to create controversy, and nor was he dismissing the State’s “duty of care”, “but you have to have a right to housing in Ireland to be housed”.
He said that an examination of monthly homelessness statistics showed there was a “significant number … that don’t have a housing right”.
“A lot of people who are in emergency homeless accommodation, or certainly some people who are in emergency homeless accommodation, don’t have a housing right in Ireland,” he said.
His view, however, was challenged by Mary Hayes, chief executive of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) which manages homelessness services across the four Dublin local authorities.
Of the claim that people with no housing right were a “significant” factor, she said: “That is not my experience. Anyone who presents for and is provided emergency accommodation has a right to housing or establishes that right very quickly.
“If they can’t establish a right to housing they don’t get emergency accommodation and are sent on their way.”
Latest DRHE figures showed more than 12,000 people received emergency shelter in Dublin, including 8,141 adults, and 3,883 children. Of the adults, 5,031 were single with no children.
Among 89 families who entered homelessness in Dublin in October this year, the largest cohort were Irish – at 43 per cent. Photograph: Frank Miller/ The Irish Times
“The main driver of family homelessness continues to be notices of termination from private rental, and the main driver of single homelessness is [refugees or people with leave to remain] leaving direct provision in the preceding eight months,” says the DRHE’s October report.
The main driver of spiralling homelessness figures is not migrants, say sources within the sector, but ongoing “crisis in the private rental market”.
Homeless services are not responsible for providing accommodation to those seeking asylum as this is the responsibility of the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS).
Those who are recognised as refugees, or have leave to remain, are entitled to apply for housing, and most achieve a right to it.
[ More than 66% of homeless people in Ireland are in Dublin, report findsOpens in new window ]
In the interview, Mr Harris also defended measures in the Government’s recently-published housing plan which could see families being prioritised ahead of single people in the queue for social housing.
“You can’t say everything’s a priority,” Mr Harris said.
“I’m saying we have to prioritise children in the first instance – children and families who are in long term homelessness.”
Mr Harris said he was told by unnamed elements in the “system” that such a policy could “create a perverse incentive for somebody to become homeless” with their children in order to secure a home. But he said he didn’t accept this argument, saying: “It offends every fibre of my being.”
A number of measures in the housing plan have drawn criticism from the Opposition, with Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan saying “single adults in homelessness have been virtually ignored” by the Government.
The vast majority of the 16,766 people, including 5,274 children, in homelessness accommodation in October were in Dublin.
Among 89 families who entered homelessness in Dublin that month, the largest cohort were Irish – at 43 per cent (38).
Of all families which entered homelessness, more than a third had had received notices to quit from private rented accommodation and 12 per cent had experienced relationship breakdown with own parents.
[ Number of homeless people in Ireland reaches new record high in OctoberOpens in new window ]
Of the 137 single adults who entered emergency accommodation in Dublin in October, more than half (71) were Irish; 10 per cent (14) were from the EU/EEA, 37 per cent (51) were non-EU and one was from the UK.
The single biggest reason for single people entering homelessness in the capital was “leaving direct provision” – 22 per cent (29 people). Among 29 other reasons for single adults becoming homeless were relationship breakdown, leaving prison and overcrowding.
Two were individuals “newly arrived from abroad” – in the last six months, and one had left the Afghan refugee programme.