Report highlights how vulnerable suffer in growing housing divide

A report, compiled jointly by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Economic and Social Research Institute, shows lone parents, people with a disability, and migrants are among groups consistently disadvantaged in our housing system.

The right to adequate housing is a key element of international human rights agreements that Ireland has signed up to. The report looks at six dimensions of housing adequacy – accessibility, affordability, security of tenure, cultural adequacy, quality, and location. It develops a tool to monitor adequate housing, by identifying these indicators for measuring progress. It also provides baseline figures on the housing situation of a range of social groups before, or in the early part of, the COVID pandemic.

The research analyses a range of national datasets and included a consultation process with 30 stakeholders representing a wide range of organisations and groups.

Some key findings of the report are: 

• Single parents and their children make up more than half of homeless families in Ireland. 
• 53% percent of families living in emergency accommodation are headed by single parents. 
• Less than 25% of lone parents own their own home, compared with 70% of the total population.  
• Lone parents have higher rates of affordability issues (19%) when compared to the general population (5%) and are particularly vulnerable to housing quality problems such as damp and lack of central heating (32% compared to 22% of total population).
• Ethnic minority groups have a significantly higher risk of living in overcrowded conditions. More than 35% of Asian/Asian Irish, 39% of Travellers and over 40% of Black/Black Irish live in overcrowded accommodation, compared to 6% of the total population.
• 29% of those living with a disability experience housing quality issues, when compared to those without a disability (21%). People with a disability are also more likely to report an inability to keep their homes warm and get into arrears on rent or mortgage payments.

You can view the report in full here.