New homelessness plan described as "underwhelming"

Sinn Féin TD for Longford-Westmeath Sorca Clarke has described the Government’s Action Plan on Child and Family Homelessness as “underwhelming”.

The Longford-Westmeath TD was responding to the publication of the action plan by the Government yesterday

Deputy Clarke said: “While the much-delayed publication of the Government’s Action Plan on Child and Family homelessness is welcome, the plan itself is deeply underwhelming.

“It is long on identifying the problems but thin on real solutions to both reduce the number of families with children becoming homeless and get families with children out of emergency accommodation more quickly.

“There is no reversal of the cuts to homeless prevention schemes like tenant-in-situ, no emergency ban on no fault evictions, no increase in the discretionary thresholds for homeless HAP or its extension statewide and, crucially, no emergency measures to increase the supply of social and affordable homes both to prevent and end homelessness.

“There is also no clarity on whether the €20 million of homeless budget allocation for homeless prevention is additional to the existing homeless services budget or what it is to be spent on. Given that that current budget is more than half a billion euros a year, the majority of which goes on emergency accommodation, €20 million for prevention is really a drop in the ocean.

“Once again, the Government is failing to treat the homelessness crisis with the urgency it demands.

“They have ignored Sinn Féin’s 12-point plan to end long term homelessness. They have ignored the five key demands of the Homeless Policy Group.

“Yesterday’s launch smacks of a government going through the motions rather than taking the radical action needed to achieve their own target of ending long term homelessness for singles and families with children by 2030.”