merrion street

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Alan Kelly TD, and Minister of State, Paudie Coffey TD , Minister with Special Responsibility for Housing, Planning and Coordination of the Construction 2020 Strategy, today (16 November, 2015) held a homeless forum to discuss winter preparations for the homeless.
The meeting was attended by various representatives from the NGO Sector, Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE), & The Reverend Asa Bjork from the Church of Ireland and a representative on behalf of the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin The main purpose of the meeting was to examine the winter preparations for homeless persons/families and to look back at the position since the Homeless Forum was convened by both Ministers in December of last year.
“In December last year I and Minister Coffey convened the Homeless Forum. Many actions have been implemented and much has been achieved but the ongoing situation in the housing market means we have much more to do. The challenges of homelessness are complex and require multiple solutions and this Government continues to apply all the resources of the State to meet the various challenges. Today we are looking at where we are at the moment as the winter approaches” said Minister Kelly.
“The challenges presented by homelessness never stop and it is timely that we examine where we are and on an ongoing basis. The work of the NGO sector continues 24/7 and I would like to commend them for their work in very difficult circumstances, “ added Minister Coffey.
At the meeting officials from the Department, the DRHE’s Cathal Morgan, Kieran Butler, Midlands Region & Threshold’s, Bob Jordan made presentations to the assembled audience.
Both Ministers also highlighted some of the positives that have already occurred in recent months:

ü 500 modular housing units to be delivered in the Dublin region in 2016 to provide temporary accommodation for families who are currently in commercial hotels
ü 739 households exited from homeless accommodation into verified tenancy arrangements (Data: January to September 2015)
ü Nationwide in excess of 4,700 rent supplement households have benefitted from the tenancy sustainment protocol. In Dublin alone 1,346 tenancies have been prevented from becoming homelessness as a result of the Tenancy Protection Service provided by Threshold on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities (Data: June 2014 (initiation of service) to September 2015)
ü 69 tenancies (Data: 13/11/2015) through the implementation of the Homeless Housing Assistance Payment Pilot (85 Adults and 95 Children)
ü 65 family units in place in Tallaght Cross with onsite support provided via Focus Ireland and housing management services provided by Tuath AHB.
ü Consistent efforts through the local authority leasing initiative to source private rented accommodation and efforts through the dedicated local authority Place Finders Service.
ü The Children and Families Homeless Action Team (state funded via Focus Ireland) has been given approval to raise its staff capacity to 25 project workers, in order to respond to the increasing support needs of families.
ü Arrangements are being put in place whereby Tusla and the HSE (Public Health Nurses, etc) will ensure the co-ordination of their existing services on an inreach basis into the family provision.
ü 50% increase in the HAP limits for homeless families in Dublin.
ü The Ministerial direction on allocations for homeless families continues to provide homes for homeless/vulnerable families
“Today’s meeting was very informative and it is very useful to hear first-hand the views of the NGOs. The problem of homelessness continues to challenge us and we will not relent in our response to deal with the myriad of difficulties it presents,” ended both Ministers.

Note for Editors

Allocation of Local Authority Tenancies
The Ministerial Direction, which requires key local authorities to prioritise homeless, and other vulnerable, households in the allocation of tenancies under their control, was extended in August and will apply until 31 January 2016. The initial Direction came into force in January 2015. Under this Direction the Dublin Region authorities must allocate at least 50% of tenancies to homeless, and other vulnerable, households while the authorities in counties Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford have been directed to allocate 30%, where such households are qualified for social housing support on or before 1 June 2015.

Details available to end-June show that in Dublin 53.5% of allocations (534 out of a total of 997 allocations) were to homeless and other vulnerable households, while in the non-Dublin authorities 35.7% of allocations were to homeless and other vulnerable households (239 out of a total of 670 allocations). Allocation details relating to the operation of the current Direction are being collated and will be reported to the next meeting of the Cabinet Committee.

Homelessness Budget
The Homelessness Budget for 2016 will be €70 million, an increase of 32% on the 2015 allocation of €53 million.

The on-going increases in the scale of the homelessness issue are being driven by a shortage of housing supply and pressures in the private rented market. The long-term solution to homelessness is to increase the supply of homes that can be utilised for social housing purposes. The Government’s Social Housing Strategy envisages the construction of 35,000 new social housing units, at a cost of €3.8 billion, and the utilisation of up to 75,000 private sector units to meet housing needs through local authority housing supports schemes. However, it is likely to be a number of years before the social housing new-builds are delivered at a significant scale, furthermore, at this time, it is proving difficult for the various social housing supports schemes (and rent supplement) to compete for private rented units. Consequently housing authorities will continue to have an increasing reliance on emergency accommodation solutions (including commercial hotels) for the increasing number of households that will continue to present as homeless. The enhanced 2016 budget will help meet these costs as well as funding more suitable alternatives to inappropriate and precarious commercial hotel accommodation; until overall supply increases, current spending on homeless services must increase to meet demand.

Additional funding will also be required to meet the increased levels of expenditure incurred by housing authorities in relation to emergency accommodation in 2015. Minister Kelly has publically confirmed that he will positively review additional funding requirements arisen. The Department has formally requested details from housing authorities in this regard.