Ireland’s housing crisis is increasingly affecting people beyond the younger renters and first-time buyers who have dominated much of the national debate, with concerns now being raised about single adults, over-45s and people experiencing homelessness.
The issue has been highlighted in two letters published by The Irish Times, including one from a Dublin resident who argued that people aged over 45 are struggling to improve their housing circumstances despite remaining in employment and living in Ireland.
A separate contribution from Simon Communities of Ireland called for greater attention to single adults experiencing homelessness.
The submissions point to different experiences of the housing crisis but share a common problem: the difficulty of finding secure accommodation when household circumstances do not fit easily into the categories around which housing policy is often designed.
Single-income households face a different affordability barrier
For single buyers, the challenge is particularly pronounced because they are competing in a market where two-income households can have substantially greater borrowing capacity.
The letter from Niamh Byrne of Fairview argued that single purchasers are disadvantaged because they cannot combine two salaries when attempting to buy a home.
That creates a structural difficulty for people who are otherwise earning an income and may be able to meet mortgage repayments but cannot compete with households purchasing on the basis of two incomes.
The problem is not limited to purchasing.
High rents can also prevent a single person from building the savings required for a deposit while simultaneously trying to maintain a reasonable standard of living.
Over-45s face a less visible housing problem
The housing debate is often presented through the experiences of younger people trying to leave the family home or enter the property market.
But people in older age groups can face a different form of housing insecurity.
Changes in family circumstances, separation, relationship breakdown, the need to move for work or a desire to trade up can all create a need for alternative accommodation.
For someone already established in the rental market, moving to a larger or more suitable property can be difficult if current rents consume a substantial proportion of household income.
The Irish Times letter argued that some people over 45 are living in circumstances they had not expected to face at this stage of their lives and that the financial effects of Ireland’s previous recession continue to affect some households.
This highlights a group that can fall between conventional housing categories: earning too much to qualify for some forms of support but unable to afford a suitable home at current market prices.
Homelessness is also disproportionately affecting single adults
The second letter raises a different issue.
Ber Grogan, executive director of Simon Communities of Ireland, said nearly two-thirds of people experiencing homelessness are single adults and called for greater resources and action plans specifically addressing their needs.
The concern is significant because homelessness policy must deal with different groups requiring different forms of intervention.
Families with children may require family-sized accommodation and protection from displacement, while single adults experiencing long-term homelessness may need permanent accommodation combined with intensive support.
Treating the overall homelessness figure as a single problem can therefore conceal important differences in the circumstances of people who need help.
Official figures already show the scale of single-adult homelessness
Government homelessness reports have consistently shown a substantial proportion of adults in emergency accommodation are single.
For example, the Department of Housing reported that 71% of homeless adults recorded in March 2022 were single adults.
Earlier government figures also recorded single adults as the majority of homeless adults accessing emergency accommodation.
The composition of homelessness matters because policies designed around family accommodation alone cannot address the full range of housing needs.
The problem begins before someone becomes homeless
The concerns raised about single adults and older renters also point to a broader question about prevention.
By the time a household enters emergency accommodation, the housing problem has already become acute.
Preventing that outcome can involve earlier intervention when rent becomes unaffordable, when a tenancy is at risk, after a relationship breakdown or when a household can no longer remain in its existing accommodation.
For single people, the absence of a second income can make the household particularly vulnerable to sudden increases in housing costs.
For older renters, rebuilding housing stability can be difficult if they have spent years in a market where rents have risen faster than their ability to save.
A housing crisis that does not fit one age group
Ireland’s housing debate has increasingly focused on younger adults who cannot afford to buy or secure long-term rental accommodation.
That remains a major issue, but the experiences raised in the latest letters show why the crisis cannot be reduced to a generational problem.
A person in their 20s may struggle to leave home.
Someone in their 40s or 50s may have a job and years of rental history but still be unable to move to a suitable property after their circumstances change.
A single adult experiencing homelessness may face another set of barriers, particularly where affordable one-person accommodation and appropriate supports are limited.
These are different problems, but they can all be connected to the same underlying shortage of affordable and secure housing.
Two-income households can have a significant advantage
The growing importance of household income also raises questions about how affordability is measured.
A couple earning €80,000 between them does not necessarily face the same purchasing constraints as a single person earning €80,000.
The difference becomes particularly important where mortgage borrowing is assessed against household income.
For a single buyer, there is no second salary to increase borrowing capacity or absorb household expenses.
That can make properties technically affordable at the market level but inaccessible to individual households.
Housing policy faces a broader test
The latest concerns suggest that housing policy needs to account for more than the traditional categories of first-time buyers, families and social-housing applicants.
There is also a need to consider people who experience a change in circumstances later in life, single-income households attempting to buy, and single adults at risk of or already experiencing homelessness.
The Government’s broader housing programmes include measures aimed at increasing social and affordable housing supply, but the scale and mix of homes delivered will determine how effectively different groups can access them.
For homelessness specifically, expanding permanent housing options for single adults is particularly important because emergency accommodation is not a substitute for a stable home.
The affordability problem is increasingly about household circumstances
The latest concerns underline a point that is sometimes lost in headline housing figures: the same property market can affect households very differently.
A household with two incomes, substantial savings and secure employment has more options than a single buyer relying on one salary.
Likewise, someone who needs to move because of a change in family circumstances may face a very different problem from someone entering the housing market for the first time.
Ireland’s housing shortage therefore has consequences across multiple stages of life.
The challenge for policymakers is not simply to increase the number of homes, but to ensure that enough of those homes are affordable and suitable for the different households competing for them.
For single adults experiencing homelessness, that means permanent accommodation and appropriate supports.
For single buyers, it means addressing the affordability gap created by reliance on one income.
For older renters, it means ensuring that a change in circumstances does not leave them with nowhere affordable to go.
The latest concerns suggest that Ireland’s housing crisis is no longer adequately described as a problem affecting one generation. It is increasingly a problem of housing security across different stages of life.
