A study released on Monday cautions that landlord discrimination, a shortage of homes, and the absence of refugees from governmental housing agendas are contributing to problems for individuals granted stay permissions in Ireland to leave the direct provision accommodations. The paper, named Access to Independent Living Quarters for International Protection Beneficiaries in Ireland, surfaces as the government grapples to find housing for newcomers seeking asylum. As reported on Friday, the number of male asylum seekers “awaiting housing offers” stood at 1,966, a rise of 69 since Tuesday.
The study, conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute, points out considerable obstacles endured by International Protection Beneficiaries (IPB) navigating their own housing search, leading to “nearly 6,000 status-awarded individuals remaining in International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) housing as of January 2024.” As a consequence, 22% of all people in IPAS housing have seen a major increase since 2020 when about 14 per cent held refugee or international protection status.
They are dealing not only with common housing acquisition problems, like severe scarcities in social and affordable rental housing supplies, and insufficient support like the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), but also obstacles uniquely theirs. These include: language barriers; a dearth of knowledge or resources about the housing process; mental health problems derived from their past and involvement in the international protection system; and residential market bias, notably from property owners and rental agents.
The report found that such discrimination was predicated on an individual’s ethnicity, immigration status, HAP status, and former IPAS accommodation residency. The report also highlights how “existing policies impacting this group” present additional challenges, including the fact that many were placed in “isolated reception centres” which hindered employment opportunities, mental health, access to services, and social networks.
Although several NGOs are generously funded to assist migrants with their quest for housing, they are under-resourced and overwhelmed, according to the report. Two charities, Depaul and Peter McVerry Trust, underscored the huge volume of people each caseworker is managing. The report reveals, “as of January 2024, each caseworker had 185 IPBs (equating to 112 households) to handle.”
The report raises alarm over the likelihood of “potentially vulnerable” migrants settling for substandard accommodation. This may include poor quality housing, housing that fails to cater to the needs of BIPs, and low-standard or unstable tenancies. Unfortunately, there is currently no system in place to monitor these situations. According to several NGOs, the unique needs of BIPs, who make up thousands of households and require different facilities than other demographic groups, are not being factored into the national housing strategy or policy.
Shedding light on the current state of migrant housing, the number of tents serving as temporary shelters for homeless asylum seekers in Dublin surged over the recent weekend to 40. Migrant men set up between 20 and 30 tents on a strip of grass adjacent to Leeson Street along the Grand Canal’s edge on Thursday night. Following the gardaí’s requests for the men to relocate their tents for safety reasons on two occasions during the night, it seemed some men had vacated the area, leaving around 20 tents by Friday morning. However, by Sunday morning, the count had increased to approximately 40 tents dispersed around Leeson Street’s offices’ perimeter extending to Fitzwilliam Place.