A homeless campaigner is warning that families will soon be living on the streets for the first time since the famine, as the housing crisis escalates.
Father Peter McVerry was speaking at the launch of a new campaign, which is calling on the government to increase funding to reduce the housing shortage.
Fourty three thousand people are currently on the local authority waiting list in Dublin.
The campaign includes the Peter McVerry Trust, Women’s Aid, the Irish Travellers Movement, homeless agencies as well as TDs and local councillors.
Father Peter McVerry says there were 490 families living in emergency accommodation in May this year, which costs the government 30 million euro a year.
He says the current crisis is being felt hardest by families and they’re getting desperate.
