According to recently released figures, 134 families including 269 children were homeless in Dublin last month – and for 253 of these children it was their first time.
As of now, 1,570 children are homeless in the Capital City.
Not surprising, the statistics have been described as both “extremely alarming” and “shocking” by the Dublin Simon Community and Focus Ireland.
Blaming the “prolonged crisis in the private rented sector”, Mike Allen, director of advocacy at Focus Ireland said: “One key aspect of this crisis is lending agencies foreclosing on buy-to-let landlords and then evicting the tenants.”
Arguing that the Government was not addressing the buy-to-let situation, Mike explained that nearly half of homeless families were losing their rented home in this market.
“As rents remain unaffordable and the gap between rent supplement and market rents continues to widen, more and more children, families and individuals will be pushed into homelessness, especially at a time when the number of properties available to rent is at an all-time low,” explained Chief Executive of Dublin Simon, Sam McGuinness.
“A deeper look at the stories of these families shows that they were living with wider family because an earlier private rented sector tenancy had broken down [because] they couldn’t afford to pay the rent or banks had foreclosed on the landlord’s property.”
