merrion street

Today, (Wednesday, 23rd May) Minister for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan, TD, will convene a joint meeting of the Cross-Departmental Team on Homelessness and the National Consultative Committee on Homelessness in the Custom House.  It is the first meeting of the joint committee since autumn 2010.

The Committee brings together all the key stakeholders working to prevent homelessness and provide long-term solutions including government departments and agencies, local authorities and voluntary organisations working in the sector.

Speaking before the meeting Minister O’Sullivan said, “Creating effective, long-term solutions to homelessness is a priority for me as Minister for Housing.”

“The Programme for Government commits to a review of the Homeless Strategy and I will ensure that there is full consultation with stakeholders in relation to this review.  Already substantial work has been undertaken in assessing the implementation of the previous Homeless Strategy, launched in 2008.  I think the challenge now is to build on the achievements to date and to move the strategy forward, with for example the integration of a ‘Housing First/Housing Led’ approach into the strategy.

“I am determined to work in consultation with the sector to ensure that the substantial resources the Government commits to tackling homelessness, approximately €50m this year, make a real impact on the lives of people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.”

“In particular I believe we need to move away from over reliance on emergency accommodation provision to a solution that provides people who are homeless with a more permanent, stable accommodation solution that allows them rebuild their lives.  There is no one simple method of achieving this goal but a number of measures such as, directly linking funding provision with specific targets and outcomes, upgrading and re-letting of vacant local authority housing units and increasing the social housing stock through a variety of other measures offer the prospect of real progress.”

“I look forward to discussing these and other issues with the Cross-Departmental Team on Homelessness and the National Homelessness Consultative Committee and am determined we work together to implement achievable long-term solutions to the problems of homelessness.”