State needs €1b for homelessness crisis, says Focus

The Government must borrow €1 billion to tackle the homelessness crisis, the housing charity Focus Ireland has said.

In its pre-budget submission published yesterday, the charity says the Government must "stop paying lip-service to the most marginalised in society" and take immediate steps to reverse the cuts of €58 million announced earlier this month in the Book of Estimates.

"The recent cuts in the rent allowance system in particular have already made it even harder than before for the most vulnerable in our society to keep a roof over their heads," said Mr Declan Jones, Focus Ireland chief executive.

The submission calls on the Government to borrow €1 billion "to pay for extra investment in social housing for 6,000 people who are homeless and the record total of approximately 140,000 people on the housing waiting lists".

It calls for improved mechanisms to boost social housing output under planning legislation which would allow the direct transfer of more publicly owned land to social housing.

"The bottom line is there needs to be more housing provided for those most in need and these proposals will help that start to happen," said Mr Jones.

He said every one of this Government's budgets since 1997 had seen the better off in society getting more than those who were less well off.

"The Government must remember that 85 per cent of people on the housing waiting list are struggling to survive on an income of €15,000 or less a year," he added. "These people cannot afford to buy a home of their own."

The charity's submission also demanded an increase in funding for homeless services in 2004 to ensure no family with children would need to stay in bed and breakfast accommodation for more than a month while waiting for a more suitable place to stay.

Lorna Siggins in Galway adds: The Government was accused of trying to send single mothers "back to the Magdalen laundries" during a protest against the social welfare cuts in Galway yesterday.

Ms Eleanor Clancy of the Galway Young Mothers in Education Project said that it appeared this was the strategy which the Government was trying to adopt in relation to independent parents.

"The Government has cut rent allowance, community employment schemes, and it also wants to deny the right to try and enter the workforce through further education by cutting the crèche supplement and further restricting the Back to Education Allowance. They just want to send lone mothers back to the Magdalen laundries," Ms Clancy said.

The protest, staged yesterday outside the Department of Social and Family Affairs office in St Augustine Street, Galway, was timed to coincide with similar protests in Dublin yesterday.