PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT have warned of an “avalanche” of evictions and further spikes in homelessness if the eviction ban is allowed to lapse.
Speaking this afternoon, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said that the ban on no-fault evictions needs to be extended until the end of the “housing emergency” and that the party would be bringing forward its own bill to do that.
Boyd Barrett said that emergency action had not been taken by the Government while the ban was in place.
“The government hasn’t taken the sort of emergency measures that we actually need to stem the flow of people into homelessness and to address the wider housing crisis,” Boyd Barrett said.
“We believe that given the absolutely dire situation we are now facing with record numbers in homelessness, and the prospect of a further avalanche of people being evicted if the even partial moratorium is reduced, that we need to introduce a comprehensive ban on all no fault evictions.”
Boyd Barrett said that People Before Profit would be bringing forward their own bill on Wednesday to extend the ban on evictions until the end of the “housing emergency”.
However, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien told reporters this afternoon that “no decisions” have been made yet over extending the eviction ban, but that it would be considered in the coming weeks.
People Before Profits’ bill is currently being supported by both the Peter McVerry Trust and the Simon Communities of Ireland.
Fr Peter McVerry told reporters this afternoon that while he supported the ban, he believed that there were a “very small” number of landlords who were seriously inconvenienced by the ban and that he would support some exemptions.
He said that there should be a process where a landlord would be able to get an exemption from the ban, either through the District Court or the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
During the press conference, a landlord who is currently homeless due to the eviction ban, Jeanette Brown, told people who were gathered there that there are small minorities of landlord who are unable to move back into their property.
Brown said that she “wholeheartedly” sympathised and empathised with people who are either facing homelessness or are currently homeless, saying she is in the same position.
Brown requested that a small amendment be made to the bill. In response, Boyd Barrett said that there would be “absolutely no difficulty” in making an amendment to consider people in similar situations.
The bill itself would extend the ban for an initial 12 months but would grant the Minister for Housing powers to extend the ban if it was in the “public interest”.
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