The Environment Minister says there is no quick fix to getting more social housing built but there will be a “lag time of a couple of years” before planned new sites are ready to house people.

Alan Kelly held a summit in Dublin today to address the homeless crisis as winter weather sets in.

He said hundreds of extra social houses are coming on stream this year, despite figures that just twenty such homes would be delivered, adding that the Government are making every effort to get houses built.

“The volume of sites is in excess of 200. You can’t deliver social housing overnight,” he said.

“There is a lag time of a couple of years ... you’ve got to do all the planning aspects and obviously you’ve go to do the procurement."

“Within all of those sites that we have put on stream they will deliver, but obviously there is that lag time," he said.

Meanwhile, a housing agency says they are still getting up to fifty calls a day from tenants complaining they can’t afford rent increases, despite a rent freeze announced by the government.

Threshold was one of many NGO’s at today’s summit on the homeless crisis and has said that while the new rent freezes will bring welcome “breathing space” for tenants and the government’s social housing plans, there are still many people facing difficulty meeting their current needs.

Last week, the government announced a range of measures to stop soaring rents, including a two year freeze on any hikes and the need for longer notice of any increase.

Bob Jordan from the National Housing Charity, Threshold, has said landlords don’t seem to be hiking rents across the board, but are being contacted by up to 50 tenants every day concerned over increases.

“We’re still getting about 40 to 50 calls a day from tenants who ware facing rent increases,” he said.

“Our main issue is to get them an increase in their rent supplement payment and at least we know they won’t face aren’t increase next year, it will be 2017 before they face a further increase,” he added.

The freeze until 2017 “will give tenants a vital breathing space and it will also give government a breathing space in which to produce new supply,” Mr Jordan said.