This month the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission/ERSI report on Adequate Housing was released. The report made for grim reading and unfortunately, though shocked by the findings, we weren't surprised. The report found that less than 25 per cent of lone parents reported home-ownership, compared with 70 per cent of the total population. The report also found that lone parents had higher rates of affordability issues (19 per cent) when compared to the general population (5 per cent) and were particularly vulnerable to housing quality problems such as damp and lack of central heating (32 per cent compared to 22 per cent of total population).

Karen Kiernan, One Family CEO, said “Unfortunately we are not surprised by the findings of the report. It confirms a lot of what we hear from parents and children through our services. We are hearing reports daily of parents living in substandard accommodation, being blocked from work due to HAP restrictions and waiting months for emergency accommodation. We are calling on the Government to urgently develop a family homelessness strategy, which includes targeted measures for one-parent families. We were disappointed that no provision for such a strategy was made in the Government’s Housing For All Strategy; this was a missed opportunity. What this report makes clears is Government must act now to protect children in one-parent families. Yet again we are asking them to use the evidence in-front of them.

We agree with the UN Rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal that the treatment of one-parent families in Ireland raises serious questions for the Irish Government and that they must act now. Thousands of children are spending their childhoods growing up in emergency accommodation – most of them living with one parent. If we don’t want this to be the Mother & Baby Home scandal of the future – we must prioritise those most in need for housing and the Government must act now as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing has said.”
 

One Family have put forward a targeted set of measures under five headings to support one-parent families and curb child poverty. The headings are:
- Supporting families
- Make work pay
- Housing and energy
- Educations supports
- Child poverty

To read our pre-budget submission click on the link below:

• ‘I sat drinking in the knowledge, and for the first time in my life I felt alive’ - Irish Times
• Report highlights how vulnerable suffer in growing housing divide - Irish Examiner
• Lone parents and housing - RTÉ Six One News (28 mins)
• Lone parents and housing - TG4 (14 mins)
• A new report shows the housing market is especially difficult for lone parents - NewsTalk
• Lone parents and children most hit by housing crisis - RTÉ Radio 1
• Ireland failing lone parents 'in every area', group says - NewsTalk
• ‘The judge said it was too premature to offer me any time with my daughter. Ludicrous’  - Irish Times
• Over half of homeless families are lone parent units - Q102
• Single parents and their children make up half of all homeless families - Extra.ie
• Study finds lone parents families account for 53% of all homeless families in Ireland - KFM Radio
• Lone parent families most likely to become homeless - ESRI Report - Today FM
• Kids left with 'life long trauma' due to homelessness - Spin1038