Novas claims some people in emergency accommodation in Clare are “blocking the system” because there’s nowhere for them to move-on to.
It comes as Clare County Council says emergency accommodation here is ‘reaching capacity’ in certain instances and that it now has a waiting list at times to access accommodation.
There’s been a total of 854 presentations to the Homeless Action Team in Clare so far this year, with 154 of those being new presentations.
Clare County Council has told Clare FM that there is a ‘sustained and increasing demand for emergency accommodation with limited supply’ locally and that ‘capacity has been reached’ in recent times.
The local authority has had to had to implement waiting lists for access to emergency accommodation.
Novas says the lack of move-on accommodation has meant that people are unnecessarily staying far too long in emergency accommodation unnecessarily, blocking up the system.
Head of Policy and Communications, Una Burns says there needs to be an increased focus on building new homes, ensuring stock meets the needs of the population and bringing vacant properties back into use.
The Chair of the Ennis Sinn Fein Cumann insists that Government policy must change to end practice of funneling public money into private developers,
Echoing the words of President Michael D. Higgins earlier this week, Tommy Guilfoyle says the housing situation here is a disaster.
Tommy, who’s a member of the Local Authority’s housing committee, says the Council has worked hard in recent years to assist people in homelessness, but he belives it’s hamstrung by a lack of funding from central government.
He says the Government took its finger off the pulse years ago by handing housing over the the private sector.
Listen back to the full interview:
