A special £5 million allocation over the two years 2000 and 2001 in the recent budget was made for the provision of two high support hostels for homeless people suffering from drug and alcohol addictions and is being made available to Dublin Corporation to build or acquire and redevelop suitable premises for these purposes. This allocation will supplement the £4 million allocation in the public capital programme for the provision by local authorities of hostel accommodation next year.
In addition, it is open to voluntary bodies to avail of funding under the Department's voluntary housing capital assistance and rental subsidy schemes to provide hostel and sheltered housing accommodation for homeless persons. My Department encourages voluntary bodies to avail of these schemes for the provision of voluntary housing accommodation and the financial provision for these schemes has been increased from £45 million this year to £68 million for the year 2000. I have also significantly increased the upper thresholds for unit costs under these schemes.
The local authority housing programme provides housing accommodation for homeless persons. The programme is being expanded to provide 22,000 additional units for the next four years and the programme includes the provision of housing accommodation to meet the needs of homeless persons. Dublin Corporation for example made 430 lettings to homeless households in 1998.
