Those who commemorated Jonathan Corrie, who died while sleeping rough in Dublin last year, were right to demand long-term solutions in response to an increasing incidence of homelessness and those sleeping rough. Funding for emergency winter beds, modular homes and social housing are welcome developments but fall short of what is required. Unless solutions are specifically designed for the social housing sector, past failures will be repeated.
Homelessness is all about public priorities, taxation and the allocation of resources. At the height of the boom in 2005, when 81,000 new homes a year were being constructed, people were still sleeping rough in our major cities and council housing lists had grown to 43,000. The unprecedented building programme did not bring affordability. Prices roared ahead; the cost of government rent supplement doubled and social housing made up less than seven per cent of new homes. The consequences of concentrating tax breaks and investment almost entirely within the private sector were socially disastrous. And there is a real risk that mistakes may be repeated.
The Government's announcement of a €4 billion, five-year social housing plan sounds impressive. And it is. But the focus remains on private construction; the availability of mortgages and profits. Even Nama, the Government's asset recovery agency, intends to sell the bulk of its properties on finished housing estates to private investors. This is justified in terms of securing a maximum return on government investment. But it ignores an urgent need for social housing and the on-going failure of local authorities to meet that demand. As Mike Allen of Focus Ireland remarked: if homeless individuals and families were allocated 2,000 of the 20,000 Nama homes becoming available, it would deal with the present emergency.
It is not as simple as that. Although the basic problem facing the homeless and those sleeping rough is a shortage of accommodation, they also require local support and security. Most of all, they need a community that cares.