The Government has been urged to tackle homelessness with the same energy and urgency that it did COVID-19. 

Child and Family support organisation 'Treoir' said a 'whole of government response' similar to the emergency measures taken during the pandemic should be taken, in which politicians focus relentlessly on the one issue. 

The group's policy officer Gayle Smith said there are a number of policies the Government should pursue. 

“Rent freezes, keeping the rent pressure zones, more aggressive State purchasing of private homes, more builds - obviously,” she suggested. 

“More investment for local authorities to turn around vacant social housing - because this is a major social issue as well. 

“There are lots of solutions and I think now it’s time that the Government steps up.” 

A homeless person sleeping rough. Picture by: Alamy.com

She added that child homelessness in particular must never become normalised. 

“This issue is continuing to get worse all the time,” she said. 

“We hear this through our information line, through calls, for people who are trying to navigate the family justice system… and in the course of that conversation we may find out that they are actually accessing emergency accommodation on top of trying to navigate all these family issues as well.” 

In January, homelessness hit another record high, with 15,286 people in emergency accommodation - of whom 4,603 are children.

Main image: A tent for a homeless person. Picture by: Alamy.com.