All of the political parties and candidates are going to end homelessness.

That’s if the pledges and promises are to be believed. All advocate for the right of everybody to have a place they can call home. However, beyond the usual platitudes and pledges of money not yet in place, there is precious little in the way of explanation as to how such a dream will be realised.

In the first instance, the extent of the problem isn’t even officially recognised.

This week, it was revealed that more families became homeless in Dublin in January than in any other month on record. In a time of economic recovery, 135 families, including 269 children, presented themselves as requiring emergency accommodation last month. The official figure for the number of homeless children in the capital now stands at 1,570, from 768 families. This is a 100% increase in the space of 12 months.

Yet those stats do not tell the full story. As revealed in this newspaper last month, the actual number of people living in emergency accommodation could be up to 50% greater than the official figures. This was uncovered by a whistleblower in the social services, Joe O’Brien, who is running in the general election.

Mr O’Brien discovered that large numbers of non-nationals are not being included in the official figures. In 2013, the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive stated that 4,613 people used emergency accommodation in the city, but this did not include a further 2,756 non-nationals who were referred onto another government unit.

“This leads to an under- assessment of the funding and resources required to adequately deal with the homeless and housing crisis,” Mr O’Brien wrote in a report for Crosscare, the organisation he was working for at the time.

His work has been questioned by the Homeless Executive yet nobody has refuted the basis for his figures. This leaves open the scenario that the homeless crisis is much worse than the worst figures that have been presented.

Finding solutions to the problem is another matter. The housing crisis is probably the greatest failing of the outgoing government, but how much better would an alternative administration tackle the problem as it now stands.

When the new figures were released on Monday, the two main opposition parties reacted with righteous indignation.

“In government, Sinn Féin will end this scandal by delivering €5 billion in capital spending on housing over the next five years to ensure the delivery of 36,500 new social and affordable homes,” Gerry Adams stated. This solution — throw money at the problem and some will stick — is the sole answer of most of those who claim they would do a better job.

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Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen did reference the Government’s refusal to increase rent supplement payments as a contributing factor in the crisis, but went on to declare: “The next government has to make the speedier construction of new social homes their number one priority. If elected, Fianna Fáil will do this and build an Ireland for all.”

Cue trumpets.

If either or both parties get into government, they will find the solution to the problem far from easy, irrespective of how much money is allocated.

The current government has made many mistakes in housing — not least its failure to heed warnings about the impending crisis — but the problems are deep-rooted.

For instance, just this week it was revealed that plans to impose a vacant site levy on land that is being hoarded or unused will not come into effect until 2018. The levy was designed to free up land for the supply of housing.

Now it emerges that even when it does come into effect, a process will follow before the levy is charged, and it would be no surprise if legal loopholes emerge which will see the whole matter thrashed out in the High Court, necessitating further delay and, if form is anything to go by, most likely seeing the levy abandoned at some point.

The price of building land is also a barrier to supply in other ways. Just last year, Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly brought in new regulations for the size of apartments in order to make the construction of units viable for developers. These regulations were criticised by a number of architects and social policy analysts as lowering standards.

Yet the department’s own analysis of the new sizes came to the conclusion that an investment of €2.2 million in building a block of apartments would reap a profit of €15,000 under the new regulations. This represents a return of 0.7% on the capital invested, which might prompt any developer to put the money on deposit altogether for a better return.

Those are just two of the myriad issues now facing anybody attempting to tackle the housing crisis. If any entity is serious about tackling it, the model on which houses and apartments are built will need to be examined to see if it can be made sustainable.

It may well arise that somebody will have to grasp the nettle of a constitutional amendment on property in order to ensure that building land is affordable. This issue was first raised in the Kenny report in 1973 but no government has yet had the stomach to grasp it.

Yesterday, on foot of the latest statistics, Fr Peter McVerry called for an emergency cabinet meeting to be assembled to discuss the crisis. He also pointed out that promises of 35,000 social houses over the next five years are completely unrealistic under the current model.

He, along with others who work in the housing and homeless sectors, warned over two years ago that this was coming down the line. One can only hope that his current warnings are being heeded by all who aspire to be in the next government.

So far in the general election campaign there is precious little evidence that this serious crisis is receiving anything like the attention it so badly needs.