Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has called on the government to come clean on the number of people who are homeless amid concerns about the re-categorisation of figures in the latest official statistics.
“Cutting the official figures does nothing to help those people who are living in emergency accommodation that is either owned or rented out by local authorities. Whether they are on the books or not, these are people who do not have a permanent and secure home.”
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has called on the government to come clean on the number of people who are homeless amid concerns about the re-categorisation of figures in the latest official statistics.
Deputy Murphy said:
“The August homeless figures released today indicate that there are now 9,527 people homeless, but these appear to include yet another reclassification of who is homeless. The Minister has confirmed that an unspecified number of people were removed from the figures after “categorisation errors” were uncovered.
“Cutting the official figures does nothing to help those people who are living in emergency accommodation that is either owned or rented out by local authorities. Whether they are on the books or not, these are people who do not have a permanent and secure home.
“This confusion over statistics cannot continue – it deflects from the real issue of getting people into decent long-term accommodation. The shocking fact is that four families a day are becoming homeless and the crisis will only deepen as sky-rocketing rents force more low- and middle-income families into the homeless queues.
“Instead of reclassifying figures to drive numbers down, we need to see concerted efforts at helping people to exit emergency accommodation. We need to be able to trust our national statistics and I am calling on the Minister to settle this once and for all.”
ENDS
27th September 2018