Introduction
The Simon Communities in Ireland welcome the opportunity to contribute to this timely review of the Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness. Our housing sector is in crisis with all elements of showing signs of being broken. The private market has failed. Social housing construction in recent decades has halted and mortgage debt and rents have spiralled. The results have had devastating consequences on the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens. There are 8,941 men, women and children living in emergency accommodation and the numbers are growing. The damage and the trauma done are untold. A child who is homelessness is more likely to become homeless again as an adult. People are being offered short term, emergency solutions when we know that the best way of ending homelessness is Housing First; where a person is moved immediately into permanent housing with support as needed.
