Call to action from the coalface of the housing crisis

As Ireland’s housing crisis deepens, Pat Dennigan of Focus Ireland is calling on the Government to take immediate steps to support those at risk 

Faced with a 24 percent rise in homelessness and this month’s lifting of the Government ban on no-fault evictions, Pat Dennigan is forecasting a challenging year ahead for Focus Ireland, the homelessness charity he has led as CEO since 2018.

Figures published by the Department of Housing put the number of people officially homeless in Ireland in February at 11,742, up 24 percent on the same month last year.
“About 12,500 people came to us last year for support and the lifting of the eviction ban means we are about to enter a new phase of homelessness,” says Dennigan.

“Nothing has changed since the ban was introduced. We still have a housing crisis in this country and lifting the ban will do nothing to allay fears among landlords as they are selling up in vast numbers because of high taxation and market uncertainty.”

As CEO of Focus Ireland, the not-for-profit organisation founded in 1985 by Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, Dennigan leads a team of 400 people providing services nationwide.

“We offer about 90 different services and operate a two-tier approach. The first tier is prevention—making people aware of their rights and responsibilities and making sure they have access to the right information and entitlements,” says Dennigan.

“The second tier is our sustained exit policy whereby people who are homeless can get a long-term home and keep it.”

Focus Ireland also has Focus Housing Association, an Approved Housing Body operating 1,400 long-term homes nationwide.

“One of the big attractions of this job for me is the variety of the work I do and the people I meet. The situations and challenges I encounter are completely different from one day to the next,” says Dennigan.

One of these challenges is ensuring that the experiences of the people Focus Ireland works with are fairly and accurately reflected in public policy.

Fair reflection

“We are almost unique among Irish charities in the sense that, from our foundation, we have concentrated on having an evidential response to what we do, based on the data we accumulate. All of our work is underpinned by research and evaluation,” says Dennigan.

“Given current circumstances, where we have record numbers of people who are homeless and entering homelessness every month in Ireland—and also the ending of the moratorium on evictions—we face a massive challenge in putting forward constructive and progressive proposals that have a national impact.”

To this end, Focus Ireland has partnered with Chartered Accountants Ireland to launch a joint briefing paper calling on the Government to help ease the housing crisis by introducing targeted measures to keep small-scale landlords in the private rented market.

While the long-term government objective of increasing the delivery of social, affordable, and cost rental housing is the right course of action, the short-term challenge presented by the large-scale departure of private landlords from the market must also be addressed, Dennigan says.

“The vast majority of families who come to us, who have fallen into homelessness or are facing the risk of homelessness, come from the private rented sector,” he says.

“They have been served with a notice to quit and, in many cases, this is because their landlord is selling the property they live in and leaving the market. 

“Typically, the landlord decides to sell the property, serves the tenant with a notice to quit and then puts the property up for sale. The property is then bought by someone who is going to be the owner-occupier.

“On a wider scale, this means that the stock of rental property is shrinking daily and, for the tenant served with the notice to quit, finding somewhere else to live is hugely difficult, particularly if they want to live in the same area with links to schools and the local community.”

The Focus Ireland and Chartered Accountants Ireland briefing paper sets out seven fully costed proposals, primarily using tax policy as a lever to encourage small-scale landlords to remain in the residential rental market in the medium- to long-term.

“At Focus Ireland, we believe Government targets set out in Housing For All are too low, but until we begin to address the issue of increased housing supply, there will continue to be a shortage of private rented homes to buy,” says Dennigan.

“In order to incentivise landlords to stay in the market until we increase our housing stock, we believe short- to medium-term measures are needed over four to six years to help deal with our housing crisis.”

Meaningful work

Sligo-born Dennigan joined Focus Ireland in 2014, initially as Acting Finance Director, having spent much of his career in the multinational sector in the west of Ireland.

“I worked for organisations like Boston Scientific, Nortel Networks and other medical device and tech companies. In the background, I was always motivated by applying the skills those experiences gave me in the service of others and the community,” he says.

“My role with Focus Ireland gives me the balance of applying my skills in what is, hopefully, a meaningful way. There is a lot to juggle but I enjoy that and the feeling that I am helping to make a real difference in people’s lives.”

Focus Ireland published its current five-year strategy in 2021, laying out plans to support more than 4,000 households out of homelessness and prevent 3,000 households from becoming homeless.

The strategy aims to deliver 1,150 new homes in partnership with local authorities and other State agencies through a mix of direct build, buying and leasing.

“We have ambitious targets and a significant fundraising requirement each year,” says Dennigan. 

“We receive substantial state funding, but it is not close to being enough to meet our overall financial needs. This year, we will have to raise over €14 million to fund our services and that is a big challenge.”

A Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, Dennigan says he was delighted to partner with the Institute to publish the joint briefing paper calling for targeted measures to keep small-scale landlords in the private rented market.

“The document is relevant and appropriate in the current situation. We also believe there is an amplified voice when Focus Ireland and Chartered Accountants Ireland come together with a similar view and a similar set of proposals,” he says.

“I would personally like to thank Chartered Accountants Ireland for helping us to share our message and we look forward to building on this collaboration in the future.”