Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin has said that the three months ban on evictions and notices to quit has led to a dramatic drop in homelessness in Dublin.

His comments come as figures from the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive show a 56% drop in the numbers of families presenting as homeless in April on pre Covid-19 months and a 85% drop in the numbers of families entering emergency accommodation.

Deputy Ó Broin said:

“The homeless figures for April in Dublin show that the number of new families presenting as homeless was 74. This is significantly lower than the previous three months, when in January, February and March the numbers presenting stood at 171, 171 and 123 respectively.

“In April only 14 of the 74 families presenting as homeless entered emergency accommodation, compared to March which had 42 families, February with 80 and January with 94.

“This represents a 56% drop in families presenting as homeless in Dublin and a massive 85% drop in families entering emergency accommodation in April when compared with pre Covid-19 months.

“The figures also show that there is no significant change in the number of homeless preventions and exits from homelessness in April.

“This proves beyond any doubt that the ban on evictions and the serving of notices to quit has halted the flow of families into homelessness.

“This is something that Sinn Féin and others have been calling for years and our position has now been vindicated.

“One of the leading causes of family homelessness is vacant possession notices to quit. Focus Ireland urged all political parties to support an amendment which would prevent buy to let landlords from seeking vacant possession notices to quit when selling their property.

“The draft bill we published this week seeks to ban rent increases for three years and prohibit evictions from buy to let properties when the landlord is selling.

“If the government had enacted these measures back in 2017 far more families would have been saved from emergency accommodation.

“It took a pandemic for Fine Gael to finally do the right thing.

“Sinn Féin has clearly outlined what we would do in government. It is time for other parties to outline how they would tackle and reduce family homelessness.”

ENDS//

Note to editor: The Table below is from the homeless quarterly report Q1 2020. Figures highlighted in yellow for April are new.

The table below sets out the number of family presentations, preventions and exits in the Dublin Region Jan-Apr 2020.

MonthTotal families PresentingLess families prevented from entering
emergency accommodationNet new families entering emergency accommodationFamilies leaving emergency accommodationJan-201717794106Feb-201719180146Mar-20123814298Apr-207462141222020 YTD539311230472