Emergency accommodation: difficulties for families in need

Serious difficulties are being encountered by families trying to access emergency accommodation in Dublin when they lose their homes.

The charity Focus Ireland said it was aware local councils were "running waiting lists to access emergency accommodation for families" and said these families were "falling under the radar" of homelessness statistics.

A spokeswoman for the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, which coordinates homeless services across the four local authorities in Dublin, confirmed it could not guarantee emergency accommodation to families.

Focus Ireland advocacy manager Roughan McNamara said these families were falling under the radar. "Minister [for the Environment] Alan Kelly took positive action to improve access to emergency accommodation for single people before Christmas. This was really positive. We need the same type of action now – an urgent response to ensure suitable emergency accommodation is in place for families.

“This should not mean more hotels as it is clear that, while it’s a roof over their heads, this is totally unsuitable as families are stuck in one room with nowhere to cook or for children to even play.

“The whole of the Government needs to make this issue a top priority as it can’t be allowed to continue to drag on.”

The most recent data, from the week of December 22nd to 28th, 2014, shows there were 331 families in emergency accommodation in Dublin, including 465 adults and 726 children. Family emergency accommodation is at capacity.

A spokeswoman for the Dublin Region Homeless Executivesaid there were “up to 20 families” where there was a major concern about getting them into emergency accommodation.

Local authorities

“Currently, families are presenting to the four Dublin local authorities with a varying level of need,” she said.

This ranged from those homeless that day to families in situations where they were sharing, or moving between family or other supports.

“While the latter is a very stressful situation for those presenting to homeless services, it is equally the case that the four Dublin local authorities are in a position of attempting to prevent homelessness in extremely challenging situations in terms of access to emergency accommodation, which is fluctuating on a daily basis owing to the vagaries of relying on commercial hotels as an emergency intervention.”

“We have identified up to 20 families, where we have a major concern to ‘prioritise’ their access to available emergency accommodation.”

However, chair of the South Dublin County Council Housing Committee, councillor Eoin Ó Broin (Sinn Féin), said there were between 20 and 40 families on his council's waiting list alone for emergency accommodation on any given day.

Sofa surfing

“Some have been waiting for months. They are being forced to sleep in cars, squat in homes after their notice to quit date has passed, or have split their family up and are sofa surfing with family and friends.

“We are over a year into the family homeless crisis and Government is still not providing the Homeless Executive or the local authorities with the funds to meet these families’ emergency needs let alone their long term needs,” he said.