Browne: it will be 'difficult to prevent' hitting point where 5,000 children are homeless

HOUSING MINISTER JAMES Browne has said it will be “difficult to prevent” reaching the point where 5,000 children in Ireland are homeless. 

The latest homelessness figures, released last week, showed a record number of 15,747 people living in homelessness in the State. Included among these are 4,844 children — 69 more than last month. 

Asked today by The Journal when we will see a drop in the number of people entering homelessness and if he expects to surpass the 5,000 threshold for child homelessness, Minister Browne said we’re very close to it.

“The sense of direction, unfortunately, has been growing upwards, and we’re very close to that 5,000. I don’t want to see that threshold crossed, but it’s going to be very difficult to prevent crossing over that 5,000, considering how close we are,” Browne said. 

‘No poor countries in the EU’

The Housing Minister also elaborated on reports that the government is planning to tighten up rules around who can access homelessness services in the State. 

As reported by the Sunday Times at the weekend, the clampdown will impact migrants’ access to social housing, prioritising people with “strong, long-term connections to Ireland”.

Access to emergency homeless accommodation will also be restricted. 

Asked about this today, Minister Browne confirmed that he will be bringing forward measures to prioritise people who are “actually living in the country” and who are “habitually resident”.

EU citizens who are homeless in Ireland will be asked to return to their home country, Browne said. 

Browne said this is already done on an administrative basis, but that this is not a “sound way” to manage our housing services.

He said the changes will give certainty to local authorities in relation to how they allocate services and that he thinks this is “the right thing to do”.

“If somebody comes to Ireland from the European Union, there’s no poor countries in the European Union, we would be asking people to return back to their own country if they are not in a position to meet the requirements under EU law to be able to sustain themselves,” Browne said.

“We would facilitate them to return to their own country if they’re not here on a legally backed basis in terms of being able to financially support themselves.”

When it was put to him that this is a way to massage the homelessness figures by drastically reducing them, the Minister denied this charge. 

Last month’s figures show that 51% of the 5,609 adults in emergency accommodation were Irish, while 21% (2,263 people) were from the European Economic Area (EEA) or the UK. 

Some 3,031 people, 28%, were from outside the EEA.