More than 180 families made homeless in three months since lifting of eviction ban
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At least 180 families presented as homeless due to a no-fault eviction in the three months after the Government controversially lifted the ban, new figures show.
The new statistics from the Department of Housing show that, in Cork and Kerry, more than half of the families presenting as homeless in April, May and June did so due to a no-fault eviction. Of these, 10 were due to the landlord taking back control of a family home and 19 due to the property being sold.
However, a homelessness charity has warned that the methods for collating these statistics is flawed and that these figures may be understating the amount of families made homeless through evictions.
At the end of March, the Government lifted its no-fault eviction ban despite opposition TDs and charities urging against it. Since then, the number of people homeless in Ireland has continued to rise, reaching a new grim milestone of 12,847 people in emergency accommodation in July. This figure included 3,829 children.
Re-introducing the no-fault eviction ban was ruled out last week by Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who said such a move would “do more harm than good” and could “undermine” attempts to address issues around homelessness.
The figures from the Department of Housing show that, between family households and single households, there were 306 new presentations to homeless services due to a no-fault eviction in the second quarter of this year.
No-fault evictions were the cause given in 20% of new presentations to homeless services across the country, the report said, with other reasons cited including substantial renovations and a change of use for the property.
Examples were also given of other reasons for presenting to homeless services such as a relationship breakdown with a partner or parent, evictions due to rent arrears, and anti-social behaviour.
Focus Ireland said that these figures may not present a true picture of the situation.
Its head of advocacy Mike Allen said: “Our research shows that the 'family breakdown' reason for homelessness tends to be significantly overstated in these reports and the eviction from a private rental tenancy reasons tends to be understated.”
Mr Allen said this is because local authorities ask about where people lived most recently and why they left it. In many cases, when individuals or families are evicted from private rental accommodation, they go and stay with family or friends for a few months.
“When this ceases to be workable, they present as homeless,” he said.
“Local authorities then record their reason for homelessness as 'relationship breakdown' (i.e. reflecting the tensions with their sister/brother/parents/friends in their temporary arrangement) rather than eviction from the private rental sector which was the longer term explanation for why they lost their home.
“When you ask 'where was your last secure home?' you see that a much higher proportion of people are homeless because of problems in the private rental sector.”