Big rise in demand for emergency beds in Midlands

Councillors have called for the homelessness crisis to be declared a national emergency after it emerged that local authorities in the Midlands have spent more on emergency accommodation so far this year than they did in all of 2015.

Local authorities in Westmeath, Offaly, Laois and Longford have spent over €69,000 on hotel and B&B accommodation to date in 2016 - a figure which has already surpassed the €64,000 they spent on emergency beds last year.

“At the moment, private rental units are being withdrawn from social housing and that’s creating new pressure on homelessness services,” Westmeath County Council official David Hogan told a meeting of the local authority in Athlone Civic Centre this week.

He said the situation was placing a huge demand on the council’s staff.

“The demand on front office (staff) is enormous. They are dealing with homeless people day in and day out, and that’s a huge pressure on them, physically and emotionally.”

Monday's meeting heard that the local authority expects to add 850 units to its housing stock by 2020, through a mixture of house purchases, letting agreements with landlords, and new housing developments.

One of the council’s housing developments in Athlone is due to involve the construction of 30 units in Arcadia, at a cost of €5.1m. 

This week’s meeting was told that construction of the development in Arcadia is due to begin in mid-2017 arnd is to be completed by mid-2019.

Westmeath County Council is also among the local authorities which is due to adopt the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme this autumn. The new scheme is designed to replace the current rent supplement system.

Mr Hogan said the council has a target of purchasing 30 housing units this year. So far, six purchases have been completed, while another 17 have been agreed.

Cllr Ken Glynn (FF) said homelessness was “the biggest issue that’s out there” and many homeless people were not featuring in the official statistics because “they’re sleeping in sitting rooms and in people’s spare rooms”.

Cllr Aengus O’Rourke said that, with many of the council’s housing developments, it would be at least 2018 “before the keys are being given out” to new tenants.

He was disappointed with the response to the housing crisis, saying the measures taken to date have not reflected the scale of the problem.

“It doesn’t seem consistent with an emergency situation,” he said. “Are there any moves that can be taken to expedite this?”

Local councillors were being contacted about emergency housing issues on a daily basis, Cllr John Dolan stated. He said it was “worrying” to see the amount of money that was being spent on emergency hotel and B&B accommodation.

The council is looking to add to the number of properties in the RAS (Rental Accommodation Scheme) but Cllr Dolan pointed out that it’s struggling to compete with the private rental sector.

“I know of one house that was up for rent in Athlone and, before the viewing date, there were 12 people queuing up to view it. That’s going to be a major block toward meeting RAS targets, when you have people with cash in hand, ready to move in.”

Cllr Michael O’Brien (Ind) said the council’s staff were “doing a great job, considering the constraints they face and the lack of houses. The houses are just not there.”

The Moate resident said there was a focus on the council providing social housing in Athlone and Mullingar but Moate was third biggest town in the county and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Mr Hogan, Director of Services with the council, replied that demand for its housing was “marginal” in “the Castlepollards and Moates” of the county and the number of units being provided would reflect this.

A tenant purchase scheme is due to be advertised by the council to its tenants from the end of this week. Both Cllr O’Brien and Cllr Ailish McManus (Ind) both questioned the scheme’s requirement that prospective buyers must have an annual income of at least €15,000 per year.

The councillors were told that this was a national scheme and the requirements couldn’t be amended locally.

Cllr Paul Hogan (SF) said the Government “needs to recognise that the housing crisis is a national emergency”.

“The private housing market was used as a substitute for direct social housing and we are seeing the results of that now,” he commented.