Calls to housing charity increased by third in November
Calls to housing charity Threshold increased by nearly a third in November as pressure grew among tenants afraid of losing their homes this Christmas.
Threshold offers support and information to help keep people in their homes.
Chief Executive John-Mark McCafferty said they save an average of five families a day from homelessness and they will remain open right across Christmas.
"When people are renting and worried about losing their home that can happen any time of the year and it can and does happen on Christmas Day," he said.
"Threshold is there taking calls 9am to 9pm to ensure that people and their families can have the support and the advice and their tenancies protected through the work of Threshold and our advisors," he said.
Meanwhile, the Government is being told to stop hiding behind a "drip feed" of housing announcements by charitable organisations.
Workers' Party Councillor Éilis Ryan said publicly-owned housing stock needs to grow by 500% in order to meet demand.
Councillor Ryan said the Government is avoiding the big picture.
"It's a bit frustrating at this stage seeing every half dozen and dozen units being celebrated by Ministers, that Ministers find the time in their day to turn up to sod-turning for 18 units," she said.
"There's nothing wrong with those 18 new units but what we need is housing in the hundreds and thousands being built and that can only be delivered by the State building public housing on its own land," she added.
