Young people wanting to move out of home often have a lot of trouble getting rent allowance and some do not get it at all, depending on where they live. A recent survey of youth homelessness in Tallaght found 79 young people had been homeless in the previous year. Some of this was due to the fact that they would not get rent allowance. Even for those who do qualify it is a ridiculous system where the state subsidises landlords who are overcharging for awful kips. The housing shortage means that these landlords can charge what they like and get away with it.
Travellers also have serious accommodation problems.
The government's Task Force on the Travelling Community estimated that 3,100 extra units of accommodation are needed straight away to cater for the backlog of families living in primitive conditions without sanitation or electricity. The housing crisis was brought about by the government's decision back in 1987 to stop building public housing. That policy lasted for five years and the number of house being built now is still only a fraction of what it was in the seventies and early eighties. While Cork, Dublin and Galway are full of new apartment blocks for yuppies there are thousands of families, especially lone parents, living in squalor waiting for decent housing. Homelessness is not just about people sleeping rough on the streets.