FEARS that innocent people could lose their homes because of proposed legislation aimed at drug-pushers are being voiced by groups dealing with social issues.
They warn that powers enabling local authorities to refuse housing and rent assistance to people engaging in anti-social behaviour could put intolerable pressures on existing services for the homeless.
The voluntary housing agency Threshold is to seek a meeting with Ms Liz McManus, the Minister of State who deals with housing, to seek amendments.
The proposed legislation allows local authorities to refuse housing to people who have engaged in anti-social behaviour. They can also refuse housing in the interests of good estate management. It allows health boards to deny a rent allowance for private accommodation to people who have been excluded from local authority housing under the legislation.
The move is aimed at drug-pushers, but Ms Caroline Kelly, of Threshold, told a meeting of voluntary agencies in Dublin yesterday the relevant sections were so vaguely drafted that they could be used maliciously.
A family could complain about another family with which it was having a dispute and the other family could find itself evicted and excluded from local authority accommodation for three years.
"The burden of proof is too low and the definitions are too wide," she said of the terms "anti-social" and "estate management".
She stressed that Threshold does not support drug-pushers and sympathises with people living in local authority estates who are affected by the drugs problem.
Ms Alice Leahy, of Trust told the meeting that the provision could affect vulnerable people - housed in the community by a health board but for whom the health board was failing to take responsibility. The legislation also represented a simplistic response to complex problems. The notion of "anti-social behaviour" was too wide, she said. "It's anti-social nowadays to pick your nose."
Mr Conall Mac Riocaird, of the Simon Community, said he empathised with local communities affected by drug abuse but the legislation is far too broad. People like us are going to end up with people evicted from estates who are drug users.
A distinction should be drawn between people who have an addiction problem and those who sell drugs, he said.
Father Gerry Raftery, from the Merchant's Quay Project, said it was already difficult enough to get treatment for drug addiction without being homeless as well. What is needed are more treatment facilities, he said.
Ms Ger Tuohy, of Focus Point, said the lack of evidence required under the Bill created a risk of spurious allegations being made against people.
Ms Mary Johnson, of FLAC (the voluntary free legal advice centres), said it seemed to her that the Bill, if passed, would create more problems than it solved.
No appeals procedure is provided for in the Bill, said Mr Paul O'Halloran, of the Citizens' Information Development Project, Dublin. The absence of any due process is one of the main defects of the Bill, he said.