Housing the Déise: Dealing with 10 years of neglect
Focus Ireland Director of Fundraising Jesse Wiesblatt, Director of Property Development, Colm Lundy, and Head of Partnerships and Philanthropy Gráinne Kennedy pictured at the 2026 Shine A Light Sleep, a campaign to stand in solidarity with people experiencing homelessness.
Mike Allen joined Focus Ireland in 2010 and is responsible for the research and communication work of the organisation, as well as its public policy advocacy. He talked to the .
“Since this government came to power we have seen this huge increase in homelessness every month,” he said. “In the early stages the government was talking about doing this and doing that. They had some projects like the review of the Housing Assistance Payment levels (HAP), the Child and Family Action Plan. We were told that there would be something in the budget that would bring them forward.”
The budget promises didn’t deliver. No increases for HAP and no funding for the Child and Family Action Plan.
“The only thing the government is saying essentially is that it is going to build more social housing and while it is a useful and necessary element to ending the homelessness crisis, it isn’t in itself going to end homelessness.
“We have seen a big increase in the number of social houses available but the number of people moving out of homelessness into social housing has increased but not at the same rate,” he added.
“Building more social houses isn’t the answer to homelessness. They are assuming that if they finally make progress on housing, somehow homelessness will come right. We don’t believe that is the case.”
The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a social housing support by the local authority for people on low incomes who have a long-term housing need.
“HAP is the main rent subsidies scheme but the maximum rate that the state is willing to pay hasn’t increased for 10 years and there has been an increase in rent levels in that time, so 55,000 households on HAP have to pay the increase out of their already low income, which is not possible for someone living on a welfare payment, disability or old age pension.”
Focus Ireland has pushed for indexing the payment.
“A commission was set up to look at what should be done. It reported to the government who said the decision would be in the budget. But the budget comes out and there is no indication of a decision and nothing has been communicated.
“It is really hard to see what has been allocated but it wouldn’t appear that they have allocated sufficient enough money to do anything near what is necessary to deal with 10 years of neglect of the 55,000 households living in increasing poverty.”
As figures rise, it is probable that more tenants will experience poverty or end up in danger of losing their tenancies.
“Ending up homeless is a much greater cost to the state than if support was provided for them to stay in their homes.”
The fate of the Child and Family Action Plan is unclear.
“Ireland has had a growing family homelessness problem since 2014,” said Allen. “There are a lot of factors and because children are involved, there are more departments and more agencies. We have been saying for more than 12 years now that there should be a set of policies, which specifically address the challenges of ending homelessness.
“This government agreed to this. The Child and Family Action Plan was supposed to be out in spring this year and then they needed to wait to see what the budgetary implications were but there was no mention of it, no discussion of it.
“We believe the plan is finished. We believe that there is a document and that it requires some funding, but when the plan is to be published the Minister, bizarrely, isn’t saying and we really think that if there was good news, he would be saying.”
A spokesperson for the Minister said that the Government will shortly publish a new Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan, developed following extensive engagement and consultation with stakeholders across the homelessness, housing and children’s sectors.
