A local County Councillor has told how homeless people in Laois have been sent to live in hostels as far away as Mullingar and Longford.
Sinn Fein Councillor Aidan Mullins, who was speaking about the housing crisis which is affecting Laois at present, told how people he has met have been sent up to 100km away to live in emergency accommodation.
He said: “Last year, 206 people presented themselves as homeless to Laois County Council and already this year, 60 people have done the same.
“Now some have been housed, some have been put in emergency accommodation and that includes B&Bs, rooms along with hostels in Mullingar and Longford.
“In the last two weeks, I spoke to a gentleman who was put into a room with three other strangers to sleep in.
“I spoke to a woman who has a four-year-old child and she is in a hostel in Mullingar because her house has been repossessed.
“Now I know it is all not entirely the council’s fault but I do feel we are not buying enough houses to help these people.”
Cllr Paschal McEvoy, chairman of the Portarlington-Graiguecullen Municipal District, agreed with Cllr Mullins and said that the current housing rental allowance in Laois was too low.
He said: “A single parent with a child gets €580 a month in HAP (Housing Assistance Payment), you wouldn’t get a caravan for that in Laois at the moment.”
Cllr Mullins slammed the HAP scheme as ‘a conjuring trick’ to make it look as if council housing waiting lists are shortening.
He said: “The HAP is a total sham, a cynical exercise in optics. It doesn’t work.
“Focus Ireland says the emerging trend is families becoming homeless from the scheme.
“It’s €800 to €900 to rent a house in Laois, but the HAP scheme maximum is €610 for a family with two kids. The gap is causing homelessness.”
It was agreed that the council would lobby the Minister for Housing to include Laois in the national rent pressure zones which would force landlords not to raise rents by more than four percent a year.
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