‘Vague’ housing proposals will not help homeless – campaigners

Housing and homelessness campaigners have called on politicians for “clear, actionable” plans to deal with the housing crisis as current proposals “remain vague”. It has also been urged for a referendum to be held regarding making housing a Constitutional right – something promised by Government parties five years ago.

Speaking at the European Housing First Hub’s Annual Conference in Dublin Castle on Tuesday, Mike Allen, Director of Advocacy at Focus Ireland said that while the importance of the ‘Housing First’ model was acknowledged by political parties, the decline in attention to wider housing issues “is deeply concerning”.

In their 2020 manifestos, Fine Gael mentioned homelessness 31 times and Fianna Fáil 33 times. In 2024, these figures dropped to 9 and 4 mentions, respectively.

“While mentions alone are not the measure of commitment, the specific policy proposals seen in 2020 have largely been replaced by generalities in 2024,” Mr Allen said.

Founder of the Peter McVerry Trust, Fr Peter McVerry told The Irish Catholic Ireland is in the housing crisis “mess” be cause of an over reliance on the private sector.

Fr McVerry highlighted that in 1975 the Irish government built 8,500 council houses, in 1985 it was 6,900, and in 2015, 75 council houses were built, “and that was an ideological decision”. He advocated for the Government to set up a national housing agency who would provide houses for the population.

Regarding making housing a Constitutional right, Fr McVerry said that that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael “don’t want to do that”.

“Even though they put it into their election manifestos, into their programme for Government five years ago, that they would hold a referendum on putting the right to housing into the Constitution – we’ve heard nothing about it since,” he said.

“If politicians are coming to your doorstep, that would be one of the questions I would ask them: ‘Are you in favour of putting the right to housing in the Constitution?’ I would expect a very definite ‘yes’ from anybody who comes to my door looking for my vote.”

Mr Allen pointed out that last year there was an increase in the number of social homes built compared to many years previous, but “few homeless households were able to access them, and homelessness still increased”.

To reverse the trend, he called for targeted use of housing supply, ensuring a portion of new homes is ring-fenced for homeless households, as well as investment in wraparound supports, including mental health services, care work, and community development initiatives.

Homelessness has risen by 45% since the last general election – from 10,146 people in February 2020 to 14,760 in September 2024.