There have been calls to “overhaul” the Government’s housing policy to help keep children out of homelessness.
Erene Williamson, head of Homeless Services for Ireland with the Salvation Army, said the root cause of family homelessness is due to a rise in the cost of living along with lack of social and affordable housing.
Ms William was speaking at an event to officially open Houben House in south Dublin, a facility run by The Salvation Army which accommodates 350 people.
Houben House, which first opened its doors in June 2020, started with four units which had grown to 62 units by the end of last year.
Ms Williamson said that families living at the hub are from all different types of backgrounds with diverse needs.
She said: “I think we need a real systemic approach, a real overhaul to housing policy in Dublin, because ultimately, what we need is for Government to be providing more affordable and really appropriate homes for people to live in.
“Generally, we’re finding the root cause of family homelessness is due to the increased cost of living, the lack of social and affordable housing, and that’s why they’re having to stay in this emergency accommodation in the interim.
“They come to us from all different backgrounds and with very diverse needs as well.
“We do face a little bit of a blockage in the system. That said, we do have families that move on from here, perhaps not at the rate that you would expect it to be, or want it to be, but there is still a move on.
“Our staff work very hard with local housing agencies, landlords, local councils to try and support families to move on in an area that is suitable for them, because we obviously want them to remain within their network of support, particularly with children in schools.
“We don’t want to have that traumatic change of having to move to a different community. There is a bit of a blockage in this service, we cater for large families, and that is generally where the main blockage is, is trying to find appropriate and large enough homes for families that are beyond three or four people.”
Speaking at the opening of Houben House, Family Hub "As Ombudsman for Children I regularly see a mixture of great ideas and poorly thought out ones making it into various plans. However, what is frustrating is the failure to put children at the centre of these decisions." pic.twitter.com/cagLXH5sYu
— Ombudsman for Children (@OCO_ireland) August 16, 2024
Andra Calauz, her husband and their seven children have been living at the facility for four years.
The 27-year-old had been living in a house in Finglas but had to move out of the property.
Ms Calauz, who is from Romania, said she feels like her family’s life is on hold and that she cannot plan for their future.
She has lived in Ireland for around 10 years.
She said: “When I first got here, I felt upset as I had to move out of our home and move into one room.
“Now, we are happy here and my children are happy here. But for me, it’s a little bit hard because we have to share a kitchen and keep all my things separate so cooking is hard.
“It’s hard to live in one room because I have a new baby and if she cries, my children wake up in all the hours.
“The staff here are lovely and very nice and it has helped me. I like here, but I want a home to live in. I can’t stay here much longer.
“We are on a waiting list for a house, but I’m told that it’s hard to get a house as I have more children.
“I’m told I’ve to keep waiting. I want to stay here (in Ireland) and want to have a good life.
“My girls have friends here and are settled and happy.”
Dr Niall Muldoon, the Ombudsman for Children, said the Government has broken its promises on delivering social housing, which has had a huge impact on children and families becoming homeless.
He said: “Over the last 10 years, we have had promises from the various different governments. Back in 2016, there was a promise at that stage that by 2021 we would 47,000 social housing units in place. We are nowhere near that.
“We were also promised at that stage that there would be much more mixed and integrated developments so that social housing would be part of every community.
“That hasn’t happened either.
“We are really looking at a situation where children are facing a traumatic experience of homelessness through the failures of successive governments to reach their own targets, targets that they said they could make and fund and targets they said they could plan for.
“They are consistently failing and that leaves children with real traumatic experience in their life.
“In 2018, Leo Varadkar said that the first five years of a child’s life is crucial for their development and there’s children in this family hub who have been here for four years and it really interferes with how they develop, how they grow, how they experience themselves and their developmental milestones, their physical health, their education. Everything is interfered with.
“It’s difficult to come back from that, it’s not impossible, but what we are seeing is the traumatic breach of their rights which is leading to long-term implications.”
