Browne outlines Sinn Féin plan to tackle homelessness

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Tipperary TD Martin Browne says Sinn Féin is trying to make a “small but important change” this week to decrease homelessness.

This evening, the party will launch its Simon Communities Homeless Prevention Bill in the Dáil, which aims to extend the notice to vacate period by three months where a tenant is certified as being at risk of homelessness.

The number of adults in emergency accommodation in Tipperary has risen from 33 in October last year, to 45 in the same month this year.

Deputy Browne explains what the Sinn Féin Bill aims to achieve.

“It allows the local authority to engage for a three month period with a person or a family who is at risk of becoming homeless.

“That intervention can make a massive difference to these families and it takes a bit of pressure off that there’s another three months.

“Councils and the government must realise – and we have it and its not just my office, I can be sure that all the TDs will be the same – that there’s a massive shortage of properties out there to rent.”