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	A new tenancy protection service has saved more than 2,600 people, including some 1,100 children, from homelessness in Cork and Kerry.</p>
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	Housing charity Threshold will publish a report this morning on the progress of the first full year of operation of its Cork Tenancy Protection Service (TPS).</p>
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	Delivered in partnership with Cork city and county councils, Kerry County Council, and the Department of Social Protection, it was introduced in January 2015 after Threshold identified a need to bridge the affordability gap between rent supplement limits and rising market rents to prevent tenants from becoming homeless.</p>
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	TPS provides advice and support to people who are living in private rented accommodation, experiencing tenancy problems, and at risk of homelessness. It provides a fast-track avenue for tenants in Cork City and its environs who are in receipt of rent supplement to seek increased payments to match increases in rent.</p>
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	Today&rsquo;s report shows that in 2015, TPS in the South-West has:</p>
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	&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Prevented 1,055 households (2,633 people, including 1,186 children) from becoming homeless;</p>
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	&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This cost just over &euro;220,000, a fraction of the cost of providing them with emergency accommodation;</p>
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	&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Protected 956 tenancies and found suitable alternative accommodation for 99 households;</p>
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	&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Almost half the tenant households (530) deemed to be at immediate risk of homelessness were in the process of having their tenancy terminated;</p>
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	&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And helped 1,227 callers to the service.</p>
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	Threshold&rsquo;s regional manager of southern services, Niall Horgan, said the achievements of TPS, with a 99.7% success rate, are &ldquo;significant and encouraging&rdquo;.</p>
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	&ldquo;Without this vital service, the number of homeless families in the region would be significantly higher and the homelessness crisis would be almost unmanageable,&rdquo; he said.</p>
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	The charity said while TPS was one of the most successful homeless prevention measures of recent years, homeless figures continue to rise, and warned the problem will continue until housing supply was increased.</p>
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	It will call today for a raft of measures, including extending the fast-tracked enhanced rent supplement payment scheme to tenants living beyond Cork City and environs, to hold rent supplement limits at current levels, and for new legal safeguards to allow residential tenants to continue in their tenancy during and after the sale of a rented property.</p>
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	The charity also wants the definition of &ldquo;landlord&rdquo; to be amended to include receivers and lenders.</p>
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	&ldquo;Homelessness carries an enormous human cost for the individual or family affected, but it also carries a large budgetary cost for the State,&rdquo; said Threshold chairwoman Aideen Heydon.</p>
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	&ldquo;The key lesson of the TPS service is that putting the right resources in the right places can significantly alleviate the human and economic cost of homelessness.&rdquo;</p>
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	To contact Cork TPS, freephone 1800 454454, Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm.</p>
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	(Published by the Irish Examiner on the 7th October 2016)</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/tenancy-protection-service-saves-2600-people-from-homelessness-424592.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/tenancy-protection-service-saves-2600-people-from-homelessness-424592.html</a></p>
