New fee structure on the way for emergency accommodation

SOCIAL Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan has called for Limerick Council to reduce the proposed weekly rent...

SOCIAL Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan has called for Limerick Council to reduce the proposed weekly rent for emergency accommodation based on individual circumstances.

Charges for private emergency accommodation are due to be introduced in the coming months. According to Limerick City and County Council, the local authority currently has some clients paying accommodation charges in the supported temporary accommodation hostel and family hub, but not in private emergency accommodation settings.

A fee structure, the local authority maintains, may help promote timely exits from emergency accommodation by encouraging sustainable engagement. It also pointed out that the provision of emergency accommodation in 2025 was €16.9million, making the implementation of these new charges necessary to ensure long-term financial sustainability.

Cllr Elisa O’Donovan, who first raised the issue at the Metropolitan District last year, again called for action at the recent Home and Social Development SPC (Strategic Policy Committee) meeting.

Cllr O’Donovan revealed that a number of people had contacted her raising concerns over the charges that already exist in the homeless hostel and family hub.

“It’s quite a significant amount of money and people in emergency accommodation are dealing with very challenging circumstances and we don’t want anyone leaving homeless accommodation just because they can’t afford the rent,” Cllr O’Donovan insisted.

The Social Democrats councillor also pointed out that single people in homeless accommodation will pay €30 per week while couples will pay €50. This she considered unfair.

“If you’re in a couple, you both contribute €25, but if you’re single, you pay €30. That’s an extra €250 euro a year that the single person has to pay rather than being in a couple, and that doesn’t seem fair.”

Cllr O’Donovan called for the payment to be reduced to €25 for single people seeking homeless accommodation.

Mary Hayes of the Council’s Housing Support Services assured councillors that there would be a provision for hardship cases.

“The reality here is, homeless services costs quite a bit of money, and there are some people paying, and so we can’t have a two-tier system where some are paying or some aren’t. We have to have uniformity, and I think it’s no different from what’s happening nationally, in terms of any state-provided accommodation,” she explained.

Councillors were also told that those coming out of long-term homelessness are finding it difficult to make the transition to paying rent and this, they consider, a starting process for them.

“If you’re two, three years in long-term homeless accommodation, and you’re not used to paying any rent at all, this is a very small amount of money compared to … differential rent when they go into Council accommodation.”

Director of Housing, Vincent Murray, said that accommodation is costing the State huge multiples of what the Council is charging those in emergency accommodation.

Fine Gael councillor Noreen Stokes took the view that the charge of €30 per week for a homeless individual and €50 for a couple was “nominal” and helped people get into a routine of paying rent.

Limerick Council said it recognises the need to implement a structured and transparent approach to private emergency accommodation charges that strikes a balance between fiscal responsibility and social equity.

“We believe the charges proposed meet these requirements,” the local authority said.