The number of families on local authority housing lists increased by some 30 per cent between 2005 and March this year, with more than half of those waiting for housing unable to afford to buy homes, new figures show.
The number of EU nationals on housing lists here has also soared by 141 per cent in a three-year period.
Minister of State for Housing Michael Finneran announced preliminary results of the 2008 local authority social housing needs assessment, which revealed just over 56,000 households were in need of social housing at the end of March.
This compares with nearly 43,000 in 2005.
The Minister said there had been a decrease in the number of homeless households on the waiting lists in the three-year period, but there had been a “substantial increase” in the number of older people and people with a disability.
“The increase in the number of older people and people with a disability is partly a result of efforts by my Department and the housing authorities to identify households which may have been underrepresented in previous counts,” Mr Finneran said.
“Particular attention was paid to these groups to ensure they were properly captured in the 2008 assessment.”
He said the number of homeless households represented those who had applied for social housing support and could clearly not represent the total number of homeless households in the country as a whole.
In Dublin, the four local authorities recorded an increase in net housing need from 11,490 households in 2005 to 13,535 this year.
But there were significant variations between the authorities with Dublin City and Fingal seeing a small decrease in overall needs, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown a small increase and South Dublin a substantial increase.
The Minister said the variation across the country was also “quite marked”.
A number of authorities experienced large increases, including Limerick City, Meath, Waterford County, Wexford Borough and the town councils of Athlone, Athy, Cobh, Dungarvan, Enniscorthy, Fermoy, New Ross, Trim and Tullamore.
There were reductions in demand for social housing in Waterford City, Kerry, Monaghan and Tipperary South county councils and also in the town councils of Ballinasloe, Carrickmacross, Cashel, Castleblaney, Cavan, Kilrush, Letterkenny, Listowel and Westport.
Mr Finneran said analysis of the figures showed the ‘economic’ category – i.e. those on the housing needs list who were unable to afford homes - made up some 53 per cent of the total.
Single-adult households account for 45 per cent of the households in need of housing support this year compared to 43 per cent in 2005.
The Minister said another feature of the 2008 figures was the impact of immigration. “There has been a substantial increase in the numbers of non-Irish nationals in need of social housing. EU nationals in need of housing has risen some 141 per cent, with non-EU nationals rising by 82 per cent.”
Broken down by age, the largest proportion of households are in the 31 – 40 age bracket, with the 18–25 and the 26–30 brackets close behind.
Over two-thirds of households in need of social housing support are under the age of 40.
There has also been an increase in the number of households on waiting lists for longer than two years.
Mr Finneran said, however, the Government had been responding to the increased social housing need by expanding its social housing investment programme.
There had been a “record” level of over 9,000 such homes built at local authority level in 2007, he said.
“Indications are that the public housing programme will provide over 9000 new dwellings again in 2008 through a combination of local authority construction and acquisition programmes, the programmes of voluntary and co-operative housing bodies and by means of long term arrangements with private property owners under the Rental Accommodation Scheme.”
More than €1.2 has been allocated to housing authorities by the Exchequer this year to build homes under the social housing investment programme.
Total investment in the voluntary housing sector would total €370 million this year, the Minister added.