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Leah Farrell

Opinion 10% of homeless families have been made homeless for a second time

Families exiting homelessness are increasingly accommodated in the private rental sector. But if the landlord decides to sell up – the family becomes homeless again, writes Wayne Stanley.

EVERY DAY FOCUS Ireland hears from families of the emotional pain they experience in having to enter homelessness with their children.

Through our child support workers – we also hear directly from the children about how this impacts them.     

The recent report ‘No Place Like Home’ by the Ombudsman for Children gave children who are homeless a chance to have their voices heard.

That report provides independent evidence that even with the excellent support of the frontline staff in homeless organisations like ours- the impact of homelessness is devastating.

The thought that any person, especially a child, may have to experience this for a second time should be beyond imagining.

Sadly, this is happening fairly often.  

Last year around 10% of the families who entered homeless services had been homeless before.

How can this happen?

We know that around 70% of homeless families had their last stable home in privately rented accommodation. 

There are broadly two trajectories for families when they lose their home.

When faced with homelessness, many families are initially supported by friends or extended family members and this temporarily prevents them from having to present to homeless services.

But such offers of accommodation generally result in very stressful situations of severe overcrowding, sometimes eventually the situation becomes unsustainable and as a last resort, the families present as homeless to their local authority.

For some families – this can happen in reverse too.

That is they become homeless and enter homeless services, but upon realising the grim reality of living in the hotel room or B&B, they manage to get an offer of temporary support from an extended family member and so they leave homeless accommodation. 

They are still a homeless household but it is just that someone has taken them in to keep a roof over their heads.

Again the situations are usually overcrowded so it is not sustainable and sometimes it breaks down and the homeless family are then forced to return to emergency homeless accommodation again.

Before 2018, the above scenario would have been the case for the vast majority of the families that Focus Ireland identified as returning to homelessness.

However, over the last 18 months, the number of families who have exited homelessness into the private rented sector and returned to homeless services, has increased.

This is usually because the landlord is selling up or needs the property for a family member.   

It is important to say that the majority of those who leave homelessness do not return. Their numbers far exceed those who do return.

But the impact on those families who do become homeless for a second time is devastating and that issue has come into sharper focus in the last year. 

Last May Dublin City Council stopped prioritising homeless people for social housing

This means that for families who became homeless since May 2018, they are far less likely to get an offer of permanent social housing and thus the private rental market is usually their only option. 

Solutions?

As is always the case when discussing homelessness, the only solution for these families is in the provision of secure homes.

Permanent social housing offered a clear trajectory out of homelessness into a secure home.

Local authorities need to look at the allocation of their housing stock. The administration of a scarce resource such as housing is fraught with difficulty and it is not to be underestimated. 

Recent reports from Dublin City Council have evidenced that ending the priority for homeless families has had no impact on the number of families entering homelessness.   

Prejudicial and stigmatising commentary such as ‘queue jumping’ or ‘gaming the system’ can also have a negative impact on families.

We need to ensure that when a family moves on from homelessness into the private rental market and then because of the insecurity in that market finds themselves homeless again – that the local authority prevents them from re-entering homeless services. 

This could work in the case of HAP rentals in the same way that it does in another local authority rental system the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS).

If a RAS landlord chooses to sell up, the responsibility to secure appropriate alternative accommodation for the family falls to the local authority, rather than to the tenant.

Of course, the long-term response to homelessness is the provision of homes and repairing our broken housing system. This will require a new vision for housing but in the interim, we can and should do better for all those forced into homelessness.

Focus Ireland has warned that the deepening homelessness crisis will not be ended without a shift in government policy.

The most recent figures show a new record total of 10,305 people homeless. Much good work is being done but the crisis will continue unless there is a substantial increase in social housing provision – and a move away from a reliance on providing more emergency accommodation and hubs. 

An honest reflection of the current situation must start from a recognition that the primary response to homelessness to date has been to build more emergency accommodation, rather than building more homes.

This approach will simply never work.

Since the homeless crisis began, Dublin has acquired thousands of extra emergency homeless beds but we now have fewer social houses than we did four years ago. 

The delivery of social housing nationwide is also failing to meet demand.

It is clear that delivering more social housing would also help people who are struggling to find somewhere to live in the rental market, as it would directly result in freeing up many privately rented homes that are currently used for HAP tenancies.

To deliver any relief to homeless families, the government and local authorities must drive far more ambitious social housing targets and build new, viable communities on the scale required to address housing need.

Wayne Stanley is a policy analyst with Focus Ireland.

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    Mute Ziggy722
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:41 AM

    They are already talking about using this technology to cure phobias like speaking in public and other more general forms of social anxiety. The possibilities with this technology are immense and positively exciting.

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    Mute Teddington
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:23 PM

    More likely people will use them to escape social situations as we veer further towards a fully virtual society.

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    Mar 30th 2016, 8:22 PM

    Porn, it’s going to be used for porn. Same as the Internet.

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    Mute Gooney
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:46 AM

    FFS get a grip,that was pure shite!

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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:41 AM

    Jasus The Journal has gone downhill if this is considered newsworthy

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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:47 AM

    They’ve always peddled fluff alongside the more pressing issues. Room for them both

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:59 AM

    Every weekday at 11am we have Take a Break, it’s generally a lighter video like this. We have about 60+ articles a day, so there’s plenty to read that isn’t like this.

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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:35 PM

    Great, now look what you’ve done Cosmo. Hope you’re happy.
    Pass no heed aoife you’re doing a sterling job. Snapchat hun?

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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:48 PM

    Yes but not every video with an “Irish Mammy” is funny

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    Mute Paige Turners
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:59 PM

    I like the Journals work @Aoife. Never mind the bugrudgers! I think it’s a great video. .. shows how accessible it is. The Irish mammy dropping f-bombs is classic!!

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    Mute Brian
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:33 PM

    Nothing to do with begrudging, it’s just my opinion and many others that it is cringeworthy and not remotely funny. Journal can do much better than this

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    Mute Chewy_Burton
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:38 AM

    Yawn

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    Mute GameOverMan
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:46 AM

    Was expecting more ‘

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    Mute J Judd
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:05 PM

    FFS Filming in portrait !

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    Mute OU812
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:18 PM

    You’d think they’d make the cameras not record video in portrait by this stage…

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    Mute graham galvin
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    Mar 30th 2016, 6:05 PM

    Or you would think people would know to record with their phone sideways by now.

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:15 PM

    Was only a matter of time before these videos arrived.

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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:26 PM

    I wonder what she was watching

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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:32 PM

    It’s the jurassic Park clip. A sleeping bronctosauaus wakes up and comes over to you. It’s really cool

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    Mute Peter Mc Hugh
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:06 PM

    Why is the footage warping at sections around the womans body?

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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:41 PM

    Illuminati and or NWO, with a possibility of lizard people shapeshifting

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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:12 PM
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    Mar 30th 2016, 7:23 PM

    That’s nearly two minutes of my life wasted. On the plus side, at least she didn’t pepper the entire video with multiple effing and blinding which, unfortunately, one has come to expect from such Irish-made videos. But for gawd’s sake, why can’t the makers of them use landscape mode?

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    Mar 30th 2016, 4:12 PM

    That looked like me coming home from the pub last night.

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:02 PM

    Have a look at that wine rack in the background, packed!! Bit early in the day to be drinking!

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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:42 PM

    Are those the 30€ dunnes headsets?

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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:56 PM

    Gear VR

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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:59 AM

    That kitchen looks a bit dated!

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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:47 PM

    Billy big balls cause he has an island in his

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:01 PM

    I think this is an advert…

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:00 PM

    This pornos great…

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    Mar 30th 2016, 4:18 PM
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    Mar 30th 2016, 10:16 PM

    Can’t wait to play knockout kings on this so I can finally win a fight.

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