Simon Community: Government must raise rent supplements 'as a matter of urgency'
The Simon Community says raising rent supplements is the only way to help people stay in their homes in the short term.
The charity’s latest study finds that 95% of rental properties available in November were too expensive for those in receipt of rental payments.
In addition, there are more than 5,000 people living in emergency homeless accommodation.
While Simon is welcoming the announcement that 1,000 new social housing units are to be built, spokesperson Niamh Randall says they won't ease the crisis for at least two years.
Ms Randall said: "This needs to happen and it needs to happen as a matter of urgency to meet the need that's out there.
"There are the rent stability measures, so new rents that are set will be in place for a two-year period, so we would hope that in that two-year period we would begin to see some of the fruits of the promises around social housing will start to deliver, and therefore that we would be in a different situation in two years' time.
"At this point in time we would need to support people to stay in their homes that they have, we need to keep people in their homes, we need to keep families in their homes, we need to keep children in their homes."
