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Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Coveney's aim for no homeless families in hotels by July? Not a chance says McVerry

The campaigner said that it is clear that Coveney’s proposals on homelessness crisis “are just not working”.

FATHER PETER MCVERRY has said that there is no chance that hotels will no longer be used to provide emergency accommodation for homeless families by the beginning of July.

Speaking to Ivan Yates on Newstalk, McVerry said that Housing Minister Simon Coveney is a “good man” but that the problem of homelessness is now “out of control”.

The homeless campaigner said that it is clear that Coveney’s proposals to alleviate the homelessness crisis “are just not working”.

Worsening problem

As recently as March, Coveney has reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that hotels will no longer be used to house homeless families by July of this year.

The use of hotel and B&Bs to house homeless families has skyrocketed over the past number of years and the homelessness crisis has worsened in Dublin.

Latest figures from the Housing Department show that there 1091 homeless families with 2,046 children staying in emergency accommodation in Dublin in April. The overwhelming majority of these were staying in private hotels or B&Bs at a huge cost to the state.

Dublin City Council spent €40 million trying to house homeless families in hotels and B&Bs in 2016 alone.

Coveney first committed to ending the use of hotels to house homeless families by the middle of this year last summer in the Government’s Rebuilding Ireland Housing Action Plan.

Charity experts expressed serious doubt that this being possible at the time, however Coveney today remained resolute that the goal could be achieved.

“Out of control”

McVerry began by saying that getting homeless families out of hotels is “not going to happen by the first of July, that’s for sure”.

He began by praising Simon Coveney, saying he had “a lot of respect for him” and that he had “tried very hard to address this problem”.

It was clear, McVerry said, that these measures were simply not working. He said:

The Minister has produced very detailed comprehensive proposals to solve the problem but he produced those eight/nine months ago and the problem continues to get worse, so to my mind they’re just not working. So I think the problem out of control.

He said that the problem was primarily in the private rental sector with families made homeless either because “the rents have gone through the roof and they can no longer afford them”, “the banks have repossessed the home that they’re living in” or “the landlord wants to sell the house”.

Introducing caps on rising rents in line with inflation and legislation to prevent evictions would go some way towards alleviating the problems in the private rental sector, he said.

McVerry added that is essential that the government find the means to convert the empty houses and apartments around the country into available housing.

Advocating going down the “compulsory purchase route” of these empty units, he said “it’s that sort of radical action… that we need to solve what I believe is a problem that is now out of control”.

He concluded by drawing a comparison between the homelessness crisis now and during the Famine:

It’s absolutely absurd. This is like the famine times. People were evicted onto the street because they couldn’t pay the rent.

This FactCheck, from TheJournal.ie, examined an earlier claim from McVerry that there was more people homeless in Ireland now than at any point since the Famine. We rated the claim “mostly false”.

With reporting from Cormac Fitzgerald

Read: Record high: There are over 2,700 children and almost 5,000 adults homeless in Ireland

Read: Explainer: How does a homeless family end up having to present at a Garda station for shelter?

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42 Comments
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    Mute Niall Quinlan
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    May 28th 2017, 2:17 PM

    Coveney’s standard response is always, “measures are in place”. That’s why he never gets anything done. Time for someone with the nous for the job, otherwise the Minister for Procrastination (Simon) will allow this embarrassing situation to worsen considerably.

    130
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    Mute lavbeer
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    May 28th 2017, 2:29 PM

    @Niall Quinlan: how many houses do you expect him to build in a year? And who pays?

    75
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    Mute ray.farrelly
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    May 28th 2017, 3:00 PM

    Lavebeer. The 40 million spent on hotels and b&b’s would have a lot of houses.

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    Mute Vic's Burd
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    May 28th 2017, 3:05 PM

    @ray.farrelly: but where do you put the families while you use the €40m to build the houses? The 40m spent is waaayyyy over the allocated budget anyway

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    Mute lavbeer
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    May 28th 2017, 3:19 PM

    @ray.farrelly: agreed. So take a year out and let people bunk in with relatives and start building ?

    22
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    Mute Niall Quinlan
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    May 28th 2017, 4:41 PM

    @lavbeer: He could make a start by banning evictions for those in arrears with their mortgages, mortgages which were given out like confetti by FF/FG’s banker friends whom incidentally have literally gotten away with murder. Tens of thousands of empty houses all over the country. Its clearly evident to me that FG wants to rid Dublin City of its residents to make room for those who work in the financial services industry, white collar instead of blue collar, the irony !

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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    May 28th 2017, 5:15 PM

    @lavbeer: As soon as they bunk in with friends of relatives, they are removed from the homeless list.

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    Mute Trevor Beale
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    May 28th 2017, 2:30 PM

    Instead of selling off property to private landlords why is the government not renting properties to working tenants, thus generating revenue that can be used to build and purchase further properties. Instead they are just giving the properties away, receiving no revenue and making the whole problem worse.

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    Mute Just Me
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    May 28th 2017, 2:40 PM

    @Trevor Beale: That’s the FG way. Make the rich richer , The poor poorer. After all the recovery has to be kept going for the 1%

    115
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    Mute Vic's Burd
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    May 28th 2017, 3:11 PM

    @Trevor Beale: if you are a council tenant you don’t own the house and you must pay rent anyway at a modest 15% of your family’s total income.

    34
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    Mute Ryan Maher
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    May 28th 2017, 3:18 PM

    I genuinely do not believe there is a homeless ” crisis ” there are less than 5000 homeless people in ireland with a population of 4.8 million. They make up 0.0008% of the population yet people treat it as an epidemic. It is an issue that needs dealt with but it is blown out of proportion

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    Mute The Grand O'Malley
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    May 28th 2017, 9:12 PM

    @Ryan Maher:
    I can’t believe there’s 56 likes on this and nobody checked the facts. In April 2017 the figures show 7680 homeless adults and children from the population of 4.8 million. That’s closer to 0.16% or 1 in 625 people.

    To put that in perspective there are about 1500 houses in my neighbourhood. That would be two families, then repeat for every neighbourhood in the country

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    Mute Ryan Maher
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    May 29th 2017, 9:07 AM

    Still miniscule , I would not consider 1 in 625 people to be anything close to a crisis. As stated its a problem but a smaller problem than others in this country. Also from the 7600+ you mention there must be some scope for people trying to play the system as I know of 3 families who have declared themselves homeless when they have access available to accommodation in an attempt to get a council house faster.

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    Mute Michelle_Herbert
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    May 28th 2017, 2:20 PM

    Can’t deliver in this then he should not be the party leader or Taoiseach. False promises and meanwhile the most vulnerable in society continue to suffer

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    May 28th 2017, 2:35 PM

    @Michelle_Herbert: surely that’s the standard we have!

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    Mute Martin Flood
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    May 28th 2017, 2:18 PM

    So if he doesn’t achieve his goal, Coveney will do the decent thing and resign out of shame. Yes?

    63
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    Mute Just Me
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    May 28th 2017, 2:34 PM

    @Martin Flood: Resign ? This is an Irish politician the word don’t apply.

    66
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    Mute james connolly
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    May 28th 2017, 8:07 PM

    @Just Me: certainly doesnt apply to the leader of your cult

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    Mute Gavin Redmond
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    May 28th 2017, 2:11 PM

    Another lie so.

    62
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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    May 28th 2017, 2:13 PM

    @Gavin Redmond: unless he plans on putting them back on the streets

    49
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    Mute Davin Ryan
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    May 28th 2017, 2:54 PM

    @Dave O Keeffe: Was just about to say that….

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    Mute Eddie Byrne
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    May 28th 2017, 3:38 PM

    Anyone with a brain in their head could have and did say that Coveney’ s statement was never going to happen. FG are the future tense party i.e. we’re planning, we’re proposing, we’re hoping and we WILL be providing. Covering health, homelessness, education etc etc etc. Coveney’s solution is setting up housing hubs like the Bargaintown site plan like social welfare. Moving people onto schemes just to lesson numbers from employment and housing lists.

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    Mute lavbeer
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    May 28th 2017, 3:47 PM

    @Eddie Byrne: so taking the bargaintown site and converting it to living quarters is a bad idea? Not better than living in a hotel or on the street? Always easy to hurl from the ditch

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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    May 28th 2017, 5:26 PM

    @lavbeer: Apollo Hse worked because for one thing it was in a central location. Was well equipped and had good facilities.
    Putting families with kids into the middle of an industrial estate with nothing in the way of shops, schools, transport services is unworkable. It hides the problem, nothing else.
    The answer is build social housing. It was done when the country was far from the fastest growing economy in Europe. But it will never happen with a neoliberal government. Everything must be given away or hived off so some of the elite can profit. It’s what will happen to council lands. And will see private housing built with a mere small % begrudged for social housing.

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    Mute An bhearna
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    May 28th 2017, 5:58 PM

    @Dave Doyle: Apollo house did not work. At the time of its closure there were 17 different fire safety improvement notices in place. You can’t just take over a building designed as an office block and move people in and think the facilities will be fine. It requires significant refurbishment and remodelling of the building to ensure it complies with both EHS and Fire safety standards.

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    Mute Ibhar Mac Suibhne
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    May 28th 2017, 7:55 PM

    @ an Bhearna , the Apollo house project achieved what it set out to do , take homeless families off the street for Christmas and highlight the issues and how inept the Govt are at housing policy!

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    Mute Catherine Mc
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    May 28th 2017, 3:20 PM

    It would take a miracle to undo ten years of austerity.

    33
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    Mute lavbeer
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    May 28th 2017, 3:30 PM

    @Catherine Mc: its worse than that. It’s since we stopped building and selling off council stock for a song in the “good times”- the true effect of Bertie is still with us. The FG damage hasn’t even started yet

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    Mute Catherine Mc
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    May 28th 2017, 4:27 PM

    @lavbeer:
    Very true.

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    Mute Super Ted
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    May 28th 2017, 4:55 PM

    Coveney is doing what he is told by his bilderberg buddies. The agenda is to make it as difficult as possible for future generations of ordinary people to own any tangible wealth, therefore more and more people will be forced to turn to the state for financial support to survive. Those who are dependant on the state for any help will be easier to keep in line.

    He obviously can’t ever admit this is the plan so he spins, obfuscates and lies with the backing of our complaint mainstream media while more and more people fall into the orchestrated long term rent trap. He is doing his job very well and will in the future be handsomely rewarded with a plum job in europe for carrying out his masters instructions.

    34
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    Mute Terry O'Callaghan
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    May 28th 2017, 3:17 PM

    Coveney.. is a tool.. and is totally removed from reality

    36
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    Mute Darren Mccarthy
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    May 28th 2017, 2:16 PM

    My God he’s like a broken record. Just spout any old crap for votes and popularity…and we keep swallowing it year after year.

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    Mute shits ville
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    May 28th 2017, 2:16 PM

    Converting empty houses and apartments around the country is a waste of effort. What we need is a CPO of prime city centre lands and buildings converted into housing with large gardens by full time permanent council employees. It’s the only acceptable solution!

    31
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    Mute Tony Daly
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    May 28th 2017, 4:28 PM

    FG and F2F, FGF, don’t have the interest, commitment or ideological interest to resolve the housing crisis.

    23
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    Mute @mdmak33
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    May 28th 2017, 3:51 PM

    He will force family’s into direct provision to protect his reputation,there is nothing to protect Mr coveney,you are a failed politician.

    26
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    Mute Adrian
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    May 28th 2017, 3:38 PM

    And we could possibly soon have this useless incompetent politician as taoiseach. Madness! The people who vote for these so called FG and FF politicians need their heads examined.

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    Mute lavbeer
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    May 28th 2017, 3:45 PM

    @Adrian: could we worse. Could be Leo who effectively forced people to but health insurance whilst the party donor bought a hospital

    28
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    Mute Sarah Bullimer
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    May 28th 2017, 6:50 PM

    I don’t believe there is a housing crisis. Migrants from around the world are arriving here and are housed. I see it where I live. If there was an accommodation shortage they would be turned away.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    May 28th 2017, 9:16 PM

    @Sarah Bullimer: Specsavers.

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    Mute Sean
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    May 28th 2017, 4:55 PM

    During Coveneys time as Minister for Agriculture he did nothing to stop the barbaric culling of badgers. Talked a great game but did nothing to change the status quo.

    17
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    Mute William Clay
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    May 28th 2017, 2:47 PM

    The minister for housing is a landlord. You couldn’t make it up!
    And coveney is not a “good man”. This f***ing Irish necessity to placate everything is infuriating.
    He is an fg parasite, with no regard for the working class taxpayers of this Country. And a giant FU to the Irish media, your complacency in their actions/non-actions is shameful.

    The sickening thing is with either bilderberg boy or the minister for everything leading the party, they’ll walk the next election.

    71
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    Mute Linda Hughes
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    May 29th 2017, 9:32 AM

    Another lie???

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