My Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities. The purposes for which housing authorities may incur expenditure in addressing homelessness are prescribed in Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988. Housing authorities provide monthly reports on homelessness in which identify the number of people utilising State-funded emergency accommodation on a regional and county basis. These monthly reports also provide details of the numbers of new families presenting as homeless in the Dublin Region each month; there were 47 such families presenting in January 2015. The details provided by housing authorities are available on my Department’s website at the following link:
http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/SpecialNeeds/HomelessPeople/
A range of measures are being taken to secure a ring-fenced supply of accommodation to house homeless households and mobilise the necessary supports in order to deliver on the Government's target of ending involuntary long-term homelessness by the end of 2016. These measures have been identified in the Government's Implementation Plan on the State's Response to Homelessness and in the Action Plan to Address Homelessness. Progress in implementing these plans is reported through the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy and Public Service Reform. The plans and progress reports are also available on my Department's website at the link provided above.
