Making homes affordable is a key part of easing the housing crisis according to the Housing Agency.

It comes as new figures show over 2,000 children were homeless in April.

The figures are stark.

More than 2,000 homeless children in April.

A 90% increase on the time last year.

Supply of homes is at the heart of the problem.

Conor Skehan from the Housing Agency saying we need to look at vacant sites.

“200,000 vacant houses is a ten years supply, so rather than wait 3-4 years to build the new houses all we have to do is use one tenth of the existing vacant houses and we have a solution on our doorstep.

Housing Minister Simon Coveney said he’s considering how to get these occupied – but there’s no one answer.

“Other countries have taken various different approaches in this regard and we need to assess those and assess their suitability for the Irish market.”

Focus Ireland have called for a moratorium on evictions while the crisis continues.

Karl Deeter from Irish Mortgage Brokers says though that this probably won’t work.

All this debate on the cures of the crisis is playing out against a backdrop of over 2,000 homeless children – with some kids having to sleep on blow up mattresses in adult emergency accommodation.