Legislation needed to outlaw evicting people into homelessness - McVerry

Legislation is required to outlaw evicting people into homelessness, social justice campaigner Peter McVerry has told the Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness.

Representatives from homelessness organisations are briefing the Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness this morning on the current state of the homelessness crisis.

Mr McVerry, who was addressing the committee with colleagues from the Peter McVerry Trust, said: “I would like to see legislation preventing anybody - local authorities or banks - from evicting people into homelessness. It should be illegal until alternative accommodation is available.”

He also said the quality of emergency homelessness services was “a total and utter disaster”.

“The biggest complaint we get is from people sharing a room with three or four others and waking up to find all their stuff has been stolen,” he said.

“There is a huge emphasis on number of beds, but no discussion on the quality of beds. The quality of emergency accommodation is absolutely appalling.”

The committee also heard that homelessness was a severe strain on people’s mental health. While many of the individuals the Peter McVerry Trusts deals with are suffering from addiction issues, “95 per cent” of the homeless generally have no issues apart from not being able to find affordable accommodation.

“If you’re homeless for a long time, you’re going to become depressed,” said Mr McVerry. “Your self esteem hits rock bottom. Parents will tell me they feel they have failed their children.

“There is perception that if you become homeless, you must have done something wrong. People who become homeless for very valid reasons feel that perception.”

Peter McVerry Trust chief executive Pat Doyle said the charity “buried 13 of our clients last year and nine this year”. He added that local authorities “need to build up social work staff” to support individuals.

Mr Doyle also called for an immediate investment programme to compulsory purchase vacant private properties.

In terms of the mechanism for dealing with the housing crisis, Mr McVerry said local authorities “have to be the primary movers”. He also called for rent supplement to be increased by “at least 28 per cent”.

The trust’s national director of services Brian Friel said it was unacceptable that people are released from prison and put straight into homelessness.

Lack of funding

Representatives for Social Justice Ireland said the Exchequer could not provide the funding necessary to deal with the housing crisis and an off-balance sheet mechanism that could access low-cost funding was required.

Social Justice Ireland policy analyst Michelle Murphy said one possibility is to use a vehicle such as NAMA to develop a mechanism that meets the Eurostat conditions for an acceptable off-balance sheet initiative.

Sinn Féin TD Eoin O’Broin pointed out that the Eurostat decision on Irish Water and said the proposal was “much more difficulty in reality”.

Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan said it was “imperative” to develop a means to fund social housing off-balance sheet.

Anti Austerity Alliance TD Ruth Coppinger said the issue was going to be “absolutely critical” to the committee but that it seemed like the off-balance sheet option was “impossible”.

She said NAMA should be “absolutely instrumental” in dealing with the issue, but also pointed out that the EU’s fiscal rules do not preclude the Government from raising revenue to fund greater levels of expenditure for initiatives such as housing.

“If we need to raise money for social housing, what about more taxes?” she said. “We could call them housing crisis taxes.”

Ms Murphy said some €10bn was required to clear the waiting list, and it would be “very difficult” to generate that level of revenue to deal with the problem in the time frame involved.

Representatives from the Department of Finance are to come before committee next week to discuss the off-balance sheet option.

Representatives from Social Justice Ireland, the Peter McVerry Trust, Focus Ireland, Simon Communities of Ireland and Novas are appearing before today's Oireachtas committee. The session began at 10.30am and is expected to continue until 4pm.