Seán Crowe T.D. has said the annual ‘Report Card’ published by the Children’s Rights Alliance again highlights that the Government is failing in its commitments to end child and family homelessness. The Report Card awarded the government an ‘F’ grade for lack of progress in the area of Child and Family Homelessness and called for an increase in capital spend on social and affordable housing in order to increase the supply of housing and decrease exorbitant rents and the price of housing Reacting to the publication Deputy Seán Crowe said: “What is very clear from this report is that the Government – with the tacit support of Fianna Fáil – is completely failing children and families experiencing homelessness.
“The Programme for Government has a commit to ending the use of long term emergency accommodation for homeless families, but sadly there is little evidence of this happening. Almost three years into this programme we have record numbers of homeless families and children in emergency accommodation and so called family hubs. “The Government, for ideological reasons, seems completely incapable of addressing the housing and homeless issue. Their ‘market will address the issue’ approach has failed to deliver and actually made things worse.” Deputy Crowe also noted that it is not appropriate for children to spend long periods of time in emergency accommodation and family hubs: “Long-term placement in emergency accommodation seriously impacts on young people’s education, social life, as well as their nutritional and dietary health. While the rollout of family hubs is an improvement on hotels and B&Bs, it is not a long-term solution to the housing and homelessness crisis. Sadly many families feel trapped in these same hubs. “Solutions should involve building more social and affordable housing, a focus on bringing vacant homes back into use, and real rent certainty and protections for tenants in the rental sector.”
