Upcoming elections provides hope towards alleviating Ireland’s homelessness and housing crisis
- Sampurna Dutta
- Jan 27
- 3 min read
“It’s far more than just building bricks and mortar, it’s building communities” says Threshold
Data from the September homelessness report, released by the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage, counted over 10,000 adults living in emergency or temporary accommodation, a steep 14.3% rise since September, 2023. People at risk of homelessness are also increasing exponentially as Ireland’s housing crisis persists.
Threshold is one of Ireland’s leading organizations that is dedicated to preventing homelessness and promoting the need for affordable and sustainable housing. Gareth Redmond, Research and Policy Officer at Threshold, reported that approximately 20,000 people call in to seek advocacy and expert help regarding risk of homelessness.
“Most of the time, callers ring us with concerns of rushed evictions and tenancy terminations, where the landlord is either selling the property or is having a relative move in and the tenants are left scrambling to secure urgent housing.”
Amidst rising alarms regarding social housing and renting options, Threshold presented a positive development in their quarterly report. A 17.5% in homelessness prevention was recorded by the organization, with over 1,000 families being saved from eviction in the 3rd quarter of 2024.
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“…But it shouldn’t be ‘luck’
since if we had a functioning housing
market in place, everybody would
have security of tenancy and access
to affordable housing.”
Gareth Redmond, Threshold
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The market has also seen a shortfall in available housing and an increasing withdrawal of landlords. However, Gareth says that this has also seen an upward curve in 2023 and 2024.
“This increase in landlords is not known because there are discrepancies between the data published by the Residential Tenancies Board and the Central Statistics Office, mainly because the RTB does not count the unregistered tenancies.”
There is a figure difference of 70,000 between the recorded datasets, with almost 25,000 not having registered tenancies with the RTB. Another factor contributing to the difference is the issue of licensee versus tenant/renter. Many renters are registered incorrectly with the Board and are unaware of the difference between the two statuses, often leading them into troubles with their landlords and pushing them to the risk of losing their housing.
Thresholds ‘Own Your Rights Campaign’ works towards addressing this lack of awareness amongst the citizens and renters and, as a consequence, increasing the safeguarding options for those at risk. Gareth recalls his own experience as a renter and comments on the dire situation for uninformed tenants.
“It has been a combination for me since I have some knowledge and experience of my rights as a renter, but I have also been fortunate,” says Gareth, “but it shouldn’t be ‘luck’ since if we had a functioning housing market in place, everybody would have security of tenancy and access to affordable housing.”
Even with these small developments that are being recorded, the crisis of homelessness is still at urgent need of attention. The upcoming general elections provide a new hope. Threshold has proposed the adoption of the Deposit Prevention Scheme, a policy already in place in the UK and Scotland, which allows a neutral handling of renting deposit by a third party to secure the tenant’s authority.
“It’s like peeling back an onion, since there is so many different layers in policymaking to address the problem we have right now.”
The Housing Commission has also detailed the need for an increase in social housing stock to 20% from its current amount of 9%. In the last year, over 11,000 properties were on the market to be sold, meaning 11,000 families on the brink of eviction and subsequent homelessness. Threshold suggests that the government increase their plans of buying up properties to 5,500 rather than the initially proposed 2,000 to maximise the number of tenants rescued from tenancy termination.
While the previous governments have worked towards uplifting the crisis at hand, much attention is needed to enact long-term protection policies for those at risk, as detailed in Threshold’s Election Manifesto. The adoption of such policies will ensure a fairer rent market, security and safeguarding, and access to suitable and affordable housing across the nation.
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