Vol. 535 No. 1
437 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the procedure or directives which local authorities must follow in relation to persons who present themselves to such authorities as homeless; if his Department provides funding for emergency accommodation in such cases; the period of time such accommodation is available to the homeless person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12240/01]
Section 2 of the Housing Act, 1988, defines the circumstances in which a person shall be regarded by a local housing authority as being homeless. Section 10 enables a local authority to respond to homelessness in a number of ways, including by directly arranging and funding emergency accommodation, making arrangements with a health board or voluntary body for the provision of emergency accommodation, and/or making contributions to voluntary bodies towards the running costs of accommodation provided by them. Generally, if a person presents as homeless to a local authority, he or she will be provided with emergency accommodation, whether hostel or bed and breakfast, while the local authority establishes that the person is, in fact, homeless. Efforts are then made to obtain more suitable long-term accommodation.
Section 10 provides that where accommodation is being made available to a homeless person, the local authority may, at any time, specify a period for which the accommodation is being made available. However, accommodation is generally available to homeless persons for as long as the local authority deems that they are in need of such accommodation. My Department recoups 90% of expenditure by local authorities on the provision of accommodation for homeless persons under section 10 of the Housing Act, 1988.
