Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin TD has called on the Minister for Housing to immediately introduce a ban on rent increases, as the Department of Housing’s latest homeless figures show a rise in the number of people accessing homeless services for the third month in a row.

Teachta Ó Broin said:

“The Department of Housing’s official homeless figures for August indicate that there are now 8,212 people, 6,023 adults and 2,189 children accessing homeless services across the country. This is an increase of 80 on the previous month.

“953 families have been recorded as experiencing homeless in August, up from 930 in July.

“This is the third month in row that the Department’s official figures have shown an increase. These figures don’t include women and children in domestic violence accommodation, families with their leave to remain who are stuck in direct provision and people in emergency accommodation that is not funded by the Department of Housing.

“It is unfortunately not surprising that these figures have shown another increase. The leading cause of family homelessness is landlords selling up and seeking vacant possession.

“Young people are also suffering, as these figures show that nearly 1,000 young people between the ages of 18-24 are experiencing homelessness.

“Most of the protections renters benefitted from during Covid have been stripped away by the government and the changes to the rent pressure zone legislation are meaningless given the rises in inflation.

“The housing issue is one that is impacting our whole society, especially our most vulnerable. The recently published IHREC Report on adequate housing further highlighted this.

“This week we also saw students demonstrating about the lack of affordable accommodation, while we saw expensive luxury purpose-built student accommodation being turned into tourist accommodation.

“We need to see a fundamental shift in policy and that will only happen with a Sinn Féin led government. We need a ban in rent increases, we need to see a doubling of capital investment in social and affordable homes; and we need to see greater tenancy protections for all renters.”