There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people forced into hidden homelessness with the number of families “couch surfing” increasing by 1,260 per cent in the last three years.
This is what the Oireachtas Housing Committee will hear today, just days after homelessness figures hit new record levels, surpassing 12,200. Representatives from Simon Communities of Ireland, Threshold, and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) will be giving the update.
And in its opening statement, Threshold will tell TDs and Senators that since 2022 it has seen “an increase in the number of people who are at risk of homelessness, who are forced into hidden homelessness, who are overholding”. They will say: "In Q1 of this year, 68 households were forced to “couchsurf”, staying with family and friends, in what they hope is a temporary set-up while searching for a new home.
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"There were 58 households in this situation in quarter 1 of 2022 but in the same quarter in 2020 there were just five.” The charity has identified 475 of their clients who were overholding in Q1 2023, compared to 303 in Q1 2022 - an increase of 57 per cent.
They have also seen an increase in the number of people experiencing ‘hidden homelessness’. In the first quarter of 2022, the charity worked with 5,360 households who were at risk of homelessness. In the first quarter of this year, it assisted over 6,001 who were at risk, an increase of 12 per cent.
Threshold will also explain that of 83 per cent of its clients that became homeless in 2022, 83 per cent had received notices of termination from landlords. It will say that families are “more likely to enter homelessness than other household types, with one-parent families at significantly greater risk, as are those receiving a social welfare payment and reliant on HAP”.
The charity will say that if the Government follows through on suggestions that it could provide tax breaks to landlords, it must ensure that this is linked to increased security of tenure for tenants. “A blanket reduction in tax will not guarantee against landlords leaving the sector, or ensure increased security of tenure, but will come at great expense to the State,” they will add.
Mary Hayes, Director of the DRHE, meanwhile, will say that the gap between monthly average new presentations to the service and monthly average exits to tenancy has been “widening since 2021”. She will explain: “In 2022, on average, for every one family exiting EA, two families entered homelessness. This is consistent to date in Q1 2023.”
She will also say that it considers the Tenant in Situ Scheme “a very important and effective tool”. This is when a local authority buys a property from a private landlord where a tenant is on housing supports and at risk of being evicted.
Dublin City Council has so far acquired 18 homes through the scheme. However, there are another 387 properties going through the process.
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