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Bookmark, Email, Print or ShareThose in poverty are being forgotten claims Respond’s National Conference
Respond, Ireland’s largest housing charity, contends that the need for social housing is at 1960 levels with numbers on waiting lists set to increase dramatically in the coming months.
At the Respond National Conference in Naas on Thursday last, the charity said that the near €300 million cut in social housing funding will have a detrimental effect on society’s most vulnerable.
“A bold and optimistic stance is required of our Government,” suggested Respond spokesman John Hannigan.
“Now is the time to increase funding for social housing; prices are lower, tenders are more competitive and there is a huge need for employment in the construction sector.”
He added: “In 1964, social housing need in Ireland was 60,000 families. We are now at a similar level and will surpass it in the coming months with unemployment set to increase by almost 300,000 by the end of 2010.
“During the boom years, it was clear that the Government focussed on the private housing market to the detriment of social housing.
“It seems unbelievable that Local Authority housing waiting lists grew by 30 per cent to 56,000 families during this period. Throughout the Celtic Tiger, social housing barely accounted for five per cent of all housing, compared to 30 per cent of all housing during the recessionary 1980s.”
According to Noeline Blackwell, Director General of FLAC who also addressed the conference, it is the most vulnerable that are likely to suffer during this recession.
“The apparent equality of the law turns out – yet again – to favour those who are better resourced and near the seats of power and influence,” she said.
“This is particularly evident in the area of housing. This is why FLAC now hopes that the current economic downturn will lead to a more realistic assessment of the harm that has resulted to vulnerable sectors of society from a failure of financial consumer protection.
“We hope that an assessment will lead to recognition of the obligation to protect those that should have been protected at an earlier time.”
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