The housing crisis should be a key issue in the general election, four Church-related social justice organisations have said.
With family homelessness having risen by 90% last year and numbers on local authority waiting lists having more than doubled since 2005, the quartet claimed that many families and individuals are not benefitting from the national ‘recovery’.
Calling on candidates and voters to “think about the profoundly damaging impact which the housing and homelessness crisis is having on the lives of so many people, including significant numbers of children”, they urged them to “consider how the mandate given in the election result can enable the next government to accord priority to tacking this most urgent social issue”.
The four organisations are the Council for Justice and Peace of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice and the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice.