The Government must fast-track social housing projects if a major homelessness crisis in the future is to be avoided, a leading charity warned today.
Focus Ireland said the number of homeless people has doubled since 1991 despite
the booming economy of the Celtic Tiger era.
It said 5,000 people were classed as homeless last year, compared with 2,700 in 1991, while 43,000 people remain on the public housing waiting list.
According to Focus Ireland, there are too many obstacles to delivering local authority homes, such as the scarcity of land and local opposition, which previous Governments have failed to address.
Announcing its annual report, Focus Ireland chief executive Declan Jones said: "What we really need now is action and delivery.
"Real progress has been made in the area of homelessness in recent years, but continued failure to meet targets may undo this progress and lead to an even greater social housing crisis in the future," he said.
The homeless-support charity is committed to providing 800 homes by 2010 through building programmes and arrangements with local authorities. Around 250 of these have already been delivered, with 105 provided last year.
But Mr Jones said the state must speed up the delivery of public housing by both the voluntary and state sectors to avert a major social housing crisis in the future.
"Towards 2016, the social partnership framework, makes it clear that the social housing targets of 73,000 units to be provided over the period 2005-2012 remains valid - yet at current output this will not be achieved," he said.
The charity called on the Government to set aside €2 billion or 10,000 priority social houses in 2008.
The current slowdown in the construction sector is an opportunity to meet the growing demand for social and affordable homes, the chairman of the Affordable Homes Partnership Des Geraghty said.
Speaking at today's launch, Mr Geraghty said: "The current slow down in the housing market now presents an opportunity to meet social and affordable housing needs."
"We need to make active use of construction resources, which are being moved out of the speculative building market.
These resources are now available to build more social homes. The overall level of over 90,000 houses in 2006 will not be repeated this year. However, we must ensure that we maintain a delivery in excess of 60,000 annually for the coming years," he added.