At the beginning of 2018, for every homeless person in Co Mayo there were 1,000 vacant houses, a panel discussion on rural issues heard at the Ploughing.

Francis Doherty, head of communications and outreach at the Peter McVerry Turst, referencing January figures from the Department of Housing, delivered the statistic at the Issues in Rural Ireland panel discussion today on day three of the Ploughing.

The issue of vacant housing was discussed at the talk hosted by the Peter McVerry Trust, made up of Diarmuid Lyng, cofounder of Gaelic Voices for Change and Brian Smith, project manager of Social Farming Ireland.

Rural homelessness is growing faster than it is in cities. This is the first time ever in our history that has happened

It was chaired by Mairead Lavery of the Irish Farmers Journal and the group discussed a number of issues pertaining to rural life, including homeless and social farming.

During the conversation, Doherty highlighted the issue of rural homelessness and said that outside of Dublin, for example in Longford and Donegal, a higher percentage of mortgages tend to be in arrears.

“Rural homelessness is growing faster than it is in cities. This is the first time ever in our history that has happened. It is up 30% this year in the first seven months of the year.

“The explosion in the numbers is really around families becoming homeless, that is single parents, but also couples with children. People are struggling to pay rising rents. Rural areas are no different to urban areas, rents are rising all the time.

“It is challenging if you are trying to hold down a job, pay rent and meet your other outgoings. You are never really going to be able to save for a mortgage,” he said.

The communications officer added that family homelessness is growing rapidly and when families become homeless in rural Ireland it has a bigger impact on them because they often have to move to cities to access temporary accommodation, so they lose their local supports.

Social farming

On the topic of social farming, Brain Smith said it is the daily routine associated with farming that helps people with whatever difficulties they are dealing with.

“People [utilising social farming] say the farm is where I can be comfortable, I can be myself, start that recovery and achieve small goals.

“Some people want to go back to employment, some people want to get physically fit, to get into a routine of getting up and going to the farm. Those small steps are enough to get them moving on,” he added.

Read more

Hidden homelessness