Vol. 558 No. 3
14 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the steps he intends to take to honour the commitment given prior to the election to the Simon Community that specific housing and homelessness targets would be set following assessment of the housing needs survey; when these targets will be set; the targets proposed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23858/02]
The Government's commitments to housing and homelessness are set out in An Agreed Programme for Government.
The provision of social and affordable housing has been expanded considerably in recent years. For example, this year we will deliver the highest level of output under the range of social housing measures for more than 15 years. I anticipate that total social housing output this year, taking account of new local authority housing, vacancies arising in existing houses and output under other social housing measures will meet the needs of approximately 13,000 households on waiting lists which compares to just over 8,500 households in 2000. The Government will continue to maintain the highest level of housing output in 2003 and onwards to meet social housing needs within the constraints now bearing on public expenditure programmes.
The issue of setting realistic targets on homelessness is particularly important to ensure that our efforts in providing resources and services yield positive results. A comprehensive data collection system is essential to set realistic targets and to monitor results. To this end the Homeless Agency is, with the support of my Department, currently piloting the LINK system with a number of service providers including those in the voluntary sector. This system tracks each person presenting as homeless to any of these service providers and this will allow a profile of people using services for homeless people to be built up. It is intended that the system will be extended to all homeless services in the Dublin area. Similar improvements to data collection and analysis on homelessness are being considered in other local authority areas where there are a significant number of homeless persons. The issue of improved data collection will also be addressed as part of the development of an integrated IT package for housing for all local authorities.
