PEOPLE HAVE “LOST their outrage” over homelessness and have become “desensitised” to the housing crisis, which has hit a record high level, Fr Peter McVerry has warned. 

The director of the Peter McVerry Trust housing and homelessness charity said he acknowledged the government’s “commitment” to ending homelessness, but said there appeared to be “little sense of urgency or any sense of crisis on dealing with it”.

“We need to recover that sense of outrage, we need to get angry again, we need to be angry at the level of homelessness that exists in this country – one of the wealthiest countries in the world,” Fr McVerry said. 

The Belfast-born cleric spoke out about the “crisis” at Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Limerick, before he was presented with the college’s prestigious McAuley Medal by President Michael D Higgins for his life-long dedication to helping people on the margins of society. 

“A lot more can be done – it’s not hopeless by any means. I think the housing minister is committed to trying to address this problem effectively – I just don’t see any sense of urgency or any sense of crisis in dealing with it,” Fr McVerry said.

“Dealing with it requires a lot of different agencies to work together and I think that is proving very difficult to achieve,” he said. 

I think we have become desensitised to homelessness – I remember I gave a talk about eight years ago and I said we were entering into a tsunami of homeless people, and the figure I mentioned was 5,000 and I was ridiculed at the time.

“But when it did pass 5,000 it made all the news headlines, then, a few years later it passed 10,000 and it got a few little reports on the inside pages of newspapers,” he added. 

“Now, it is a record 11,300 and it barely causes a ripple – so yes, it has become normalised and we have become used to it, and we have lost our sense of outrage.

Delivering a clear Christmas wishlist to government, Fr McVerry said the government also needs to ensure local councils played their part by redeveloping old and vacant buildings. 

“They know what I want, and I think we could do far better – for example Waterford City and County Council, over the last 18 months, brought 45 empty buildings back into residential use, however, many local authorities brought none back into use,” he said.

“If every local authority did what Waterford did, we could have another 1,200-1,500 units every year becoming available.” 

He praised Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien’s commitment to the construction of 5,000 modular units for those in need: “The minister originally said 500, I said why not 5,000”. 

If Government proposals to make it illegal for properties to be advertised on Airbnb if the unit is not properly registered are passed “it could bring another 10,000-15,000 back into use immediately”, he said.

As temperatures are forecast to drop below -4 degrees, Fr McVerry said: “In Dublin, during the very cold spell, there will be a bed for everybody, beds will be provided in common areas; hostels will put in extra fold up beds, but I don’t know what other local authorities may be doing, it may be a bigger problem in other areas.” 

The Peter McVerry Trust has 35 “extra beds” available during the expected freeze, “we will play our part, and if we need even more than 35 (beds), we can make them available at short notice”. 

Fr McVerry said while hostels “get people off the streets” they were “not a solution to homelessness”. 

The trust has provided 40 long-term housing units in Limerick with an additional 100 units “on the way” including fourteen units in Moyross “which should be ready by Christmas”.