Focus Ireland has reiterated concerns about the Housing and Residential Tenancies Bill which is due to complete its passage in the D\u00e1il tomorrow night.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks a coalition of charities pointed out that there had been minimal debate and last-minute amendments to the legislation which they said would result in a shift in homeless policy.<\/p>\n
The Minister for Housing James Browne stated at the time that there had been ample debate over the legislation.<\/p>\n
However, Director of Advocacy at Focus Ireland Mike Allen said the “Miscellaneous Bill” which had been published included “so many ill-considered measures, it is impossible to detail them all in one press statement.”<\/p>\n
The legislation means that only those who can prove to local authority staff that they are “habitually resident” in Ireland will get access to shelter if they are homeless.<\/p>\n
Focus Ireland has said that this requires detailed paperwork which people are unlikely to have if fleeing domestic violence, have been evicted or are going through a mental health crisis.<\/p>\n
Under the old legislation, local authorities had the discretion on humanitarian grounds to offer on-going shelter to people.<\/p>\n
The charity highlighted Government amendments which remove the legal basis for a “humanitarian safety net, replacing it with a new so-called ‘safety net’ of night-time only shelter for two nights.”<\/p>\n
This Bill is the first change in homelessness legislation since 1988.<\/p>\n
It includes the time at which vulnerable people are allowed access to shelter (8pm) and when they will need to leave (8am).<\/p>\n
Mr Allen said the Government’s justification for the “rushed legislation” was to provide “clarity” to the homelessness system.<\/p>\n
“Instead, it creates a range of new uncertainties about access to emergency accommodation and how vulnerable people will be treated,” he said.<\/p>\n
He called for the legislation to be put on hold while it is given the “detailed consideration it merits” or for the Seanad to play its constitutional role.<\/p>\n
He said that if the legislation is passed unaltered, it would result in “on-going tensions between homeless NGOs and local government about how its provision are implemented and monitored.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Focus Ireland has reiterated concerns about the Housing and Residential Tenancies Bill which is due to complete its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-537939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}