Put homelessness at the heart of the Housing Bill

March 02, 2009

MakeRoom launches online lobby campaign

Help make room to put homelessness at the heart of the Housing Bill by clicking here

The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill will start its passage through the Dáil this week. Launched in June 2008 the Bill includes; improvements to housing services; a statutory basis for the Rental Accommodation Scheme; a new incremental purchase scheme; and provisions for local anti social behaviour strategies.

MakeRoom, the campaign alliance of Focus Ireland, the Simon Communities of Ireland, the Society of St Vincent de Paul and Threshold Alliance, has launched an online lobby campaign in an attempt to secure a number of amendments to the Bill the purpose of which is to 'put homelessness at the heart of the Housing Bill.'

Speaking this morning Bob Jordan said:

"The Housing Bill 2008 is an important piece of legislation aimed at improving services and developing sustainable communities. Housing and homeless are interconnected; there needs to be a strong link at both a policy level and in terms of practice responding to needs as they arise with the appropriate supports.

MakeRoom is calling on everyone who wants to help end homelessness to take action and log on to their website www.makeroom.ie/takeaction. There you can sign up to this campaign, send a letter directly to the TD's in your constituency and to the Ministers with direct responsibility Minister John Gormley and Minister of State Michael Finneran asking them to 'put homelessness at the heart of this housing bill'.

"MakeRoom supports this Bill. We believe it could make a real difference to the lives of many people who are currently homeless and indeed serve to prevent others becoming homeless in the future but only if a number of gaps which we have identified are addressed.

"We believe that with reasonable amendments the Bill could become a truly valuable tool for meeting the government's target of ending long-term homelessness and the need to sleep rough by 2010.

MakeRoom is calling on everyone who wants to help end homelessness to log on to www.makeroom.ie/takeaction and lobby their local TDs to put homelessness at the heart of the Housing Bill.