The current housing crisis will have long-term implications not yet dreamed of, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the president of Focus Ireland, warned yesterday.
At the publication of the homeless agency's annual report, Sister Stanislaus said the long-term effects of the housing problem could not be known as this State had never been in such a situation before. "And that is not scaremongering. We simply don't know the repercussions," she said.
According to Focus Ireland, there are at least 6,000 homeless people in this State at any given time.
It found that homeless people were now remaining homeless for longer than before because of the shortage of suitable emergency and permanent accommodation. They are also spending longer periods of time in unsuitable accommodation, such as B&Bs.
Sister Stanislaus said the current environment was "anything but hopeful" and was in fact "very grim" for those who did not own a home.
Tax incentives were encouraging wealthier people to invest in property, she said. This was excluding low- to middle-income earners who were becoming resigned to never owning their own home. More people were forced to join the growing housing waiting lists, she said, as the homelessness rate increased unchecked.
While the housing waiting lists increased by 15,000 households to nearly 54,000 between 1999 and 2001, the output from the local authority and voluntary housing sector was fewer than 12,000 houses, she said.
According to Sister Stanislaus, politicians have an obligation to provide the basic human right of housing.
Mr Declan Jones, Focus Ireland's chief executive, said politicians would be more interested in finding a solution to the housing crisis if they thought they would win more votes. Instead, there was a "chronic shortage" of appropriate and available emergency and permanent accommodation.
"These problems aren't going to just disappear overnight, and it's a worrying development that last week the Government targeted local authority housing as part of a cost-cutting exercise," he said.
Sister Stanislaus said the need for local authorities to get cost approval from the Department of the Environment for developments would further slow progress on housing needy families.
"The Government has failed to live up to its housing commitments under the PPF [Programme for Prosperity and Fairness]. In fact, the Taoiseach confirmed in the Dáil at the end of last year they will fail to meet the requirement of social housing provision as projected in the PPF plan," she said.
Meanwhile, Mr Jones said some people actually preferred sleeping rough on the streets to finding a bed in a hostel.
Some people said they did not want to be separated from their partner or family.
Others cited lack of support services, while some said they wanted to steer clear of potential drug-taking or intimidation by other hostel-users. Some were barred from hostels for their own anti-social behaviour.
Focus Ireland has called for a radical overhaul of the housing system.
In the short term, it has urged the Government to make the provision of more emergency and permanent accommodation a priority issue.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said the Government was keenly aware of the need for more housing.
"The Government has responded in many forms with many initiatives, most notably the Affordable Housing Scheme, which gives those who never had an opportunity before a chance to own their own homes," he said.
The benefits of such schemes were now starting to be felt, the spokesman added.
