End Child Homelessness in Ireland Now

Every day in Ireland more people become homeless and children are a high percentage of this homeless crisis. According to the Department of Housing and Planning, Community and Local Government “In Feb 2017, 7167 people were homeless in Ireland, of those 2407 were children” meaning, one in three people experiencing homelessness in Ireland is a child. This number is rising every year and it is increasing significantly “A jump of 25% when you compare Feb 2016 to Feb 2017”. How would I feel if I was a child who has been made homeless through no fault of my own and with no way to change my situation? The vast majority of children who become homeless in Ireland are part of families who run into difficulty renting in the private sector due to rising rents, unemployment, family breakdown or other issues. A family home may go into mortgage arrears for one of the same reasons and the home is repossessed by the bank. As a result of this an individual or family can all of a sudden find themselves homeless.
According to Glasser and Bridgman (1999) “There is a distinction between the literally homeless (no conventional dwelling) and the precariously or marginally housed (person’s with tenuous or very temporary claims to a more or less conventional dwelling (B+Bs or state run shelters)”, but it means both groups have no home of their own, no permanent place to be and feel safe. According to Barnardo’s (2016) “Children need a safe, warm, secure place to call home. Inadequate, unsafe or insecure housing has serious repercussions; affecting a child’s mental and physical health, social and emotional development, education and their key relationships”.
Due to a shortage of social housing families tend to receive shelter from the state in temporary accommodation in hostels and shelters, which can have little to no security and rooms, do not have adequate space, proper cooking or clothes washing facilities. According to Barnardo’s (2016) “Often families are being moved between locations living in one room sharing beds with siblings and parents, with no space to do homework, cook food, store belongings and strict curfews are implemented these all have a profound negative impact on a child’s development”.
According to the Irish government (2016) “Families with children presenting as homeless require a response that is separate and distinct from presentations by adult individuals and couples”. Homeless families with young children receive more attention in the press but it hasn’t motivated our government to change policy efficiently enough to meet the need for affordable housing for all, According to Glasser and Bridgman (1999) The issue of child homelessness “confronts us most directly with Society’s failure to guarantee a minimum standard of protection”. The lack of social housing is paramount to the housing crisis. There has been a chronic lack of investment in this service and it has led to an ever longer waiting list for social housing nationally and the building of same is very stagnant. This in turn has increased demand on the private rental market which has seen a huge growth in rent increases in the private sector. According to Blakemore (2003) “Of all human needs shelter is one of the most fundamental, but housing is also important because it can give a sense of security that stems from bonding with Home”.