Vol. 515 No. 3
231 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the action, if any, being taken to tackle homelessness in Dublin; the assistance given to voluntary organisations in this regard and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6071/00]
The Government is committed to addressing the problem of homelessness. The need for a comprehensive response to homelessness was acknowledged in the establishment of the cross-Department team on homelessness whose remit includes health, education, employment as well as accommodation needs. The team will present its report in the near future with recommendations on how the problem of homelessness should be addressed comprehensively.
A special £5 million allocation over the two years, 2000 and 2001, was made in the recent budget 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 this year.
In addition, it is open to voluntary bodies to avail of funding under my 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 in 1999 to £68 million for the year 2000. The upper thresholds for unit costs under these schemes have also been significantly increased.
Local authorities are also empowered under section 10 of the Housing Act, 1988, to fund the provision of accommodation for homeless people and to make contributions to voluntary bodies towards the running costs of accommodation for homeless people operated by the voluntary bodies. My Department recoups 90% of local authorities expenditure on emergency accommodation for homeless persons.
The local authority housing programme which also provides housing accommodation for homeless persons is being expanded to provide 22,000 housing starts over the next four years.
