Simon Harris tells lies. He is so immersed in PR that he throws out statements that are not based on the truth.
Recently, he claimed that ‘there is a link’ between homelessness and migration. The ‘link’ is his way of hinting that his government are not responsible – the cause is the number of migrants.
It is nonsense.
The emergency accommodation figures do not count those in direct provision. Nor do they count rough sleepers or those who have been forced into couch surfing. So, when Harris claims a link, he ‘forgets’ to say that those seeking asylum are often forced to sleep in tents.
Homeless figures only began in 2014 and have risen steadily since then. The main reason is that people cannot exit emergency accommodation and find other suitable homes. Rents are way too high. Few council houses are being built. And there is no chance that you can buy a house if you have a low income.
As Focus Ireland points out, ‘In Dublin, for each family that left emergency accommodation to a tenancy in July, 2 families entered emergency accommodation, which is driving up the total number of individuals and families in homelessness.’
If the problem is that people are not exiting the accommodation service, then the question is who is causing this? It is not migrants but the government that has caused this crisis.
Back in 2018, one politician pointed the finger at Fine Gael’s housing ministers. He said ‘The Government is divorced from this reality. Rents have spiraled, there has been no affordable housing scheme, they have not built on State land and a whole generation of people are being priced out of ever owning their own home. They need to stop with the announcements and the re-announcements and acknowledge their failures in this area.”
His name was Darragh O Brien, now the Minister responsible for housing. It is because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gal have failed that they want to blame migrants.
We need a left government and entirely different policies. One that builds social and affordable housing on public land. One that introduces rent controls and legal rent reductions. One that opens vacant public buildings for the homeless.