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Homelessness Strategy

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2020

Tuesday, 6 October 2020

Questions (39, 46, 47)

Paul Murphy

Question:

39. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on the causes of the recent increase in homelessness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28322/20]

View answer

Mick Barry

Question:

46. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the measures he will take following the recent release of homeless figures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28553/20]

View answer

Richard Boyd Barrett

Question:

47. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if, in the context of Covid-19 and particularly rising infection rates, his views on whether it is unacceptable from a public health point of view to allow families and persons to become homeless; the measures he plans to take to ensure this does not happen; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28542/20]

View answer

Oral answers (11 contributions)

I would like to ask the Minister about the recent increase in homelessness among single adults. The number increased by 171 nationwide between February and the end of August, with the majority, 133, in Dublin. What is the Minister's view on the causes of the increase? What action is the Government taking to deal with it?

I propose to take Questions Nos. 39, 46 and 47 together.

I thank the Deputies. The programme for Government, Our Shared Future, commits to reducing and preventing homelessness and provides detail on how the Government will approach it as a priority. This year, we are seeing a reduction in the numbers of people in emergency accommodation. That is to be welcomed. Deputy Murphy's assertion that homelessness figures are rising is incorrect. The statistics do not bear that out. We have seen a slight increase in the homelessness rate among single adults. We are watching that but what I must watch, in particular, is the number of people who have been homeless for a sustained period. One of the issues that arises is the lack of availability of properties appropriate for single people. That is why I issued, in early July, the call for housing, which involved asking each local authority, through the Housing Agency, to acquire properties, particularly focusing on those experiencing long-term homelessness. I refer not just to single people, who are a concern, but also to larger families. I apologise to colleagues who attended the meeting of the housing committee earlier if I am repeating myself because we went into this in a little detail. Approximately 50 larger families have been homeless for four years because the requisite, appropriate properties have not been available to them. I have again asked through the Housing Agency that we source such properties as a matter of priority to focus our efforts on those who have experienced long-term homelessness. We also need to ensure that we prevent people from going into homelessness. We need to ensure, therefore, a sustainable supply of public properties. We must also ensure that people do not fall into homelessness itself.

I thank the local authorities, the delivery partners and the Department for all their work this year on sourcing homes and dealing with the threat of Covid-19. Significant numbers of individuals and families are exiting homelessness every week. On 25 September, I published the monthly homelessness report for August. It showed that a total of 8,702 individuals were in emergency accommodation, representing a decrease of 26 on the figure from the July report. Indeed, the figures from August 2020 represent a decrease of 1,636 individuals, down 16% on the 10,338 recorded at the same point in 2019. The August report also confirmed the lowest number of families reported in emergency accommodation since June 2016 and the lowest number of dependants recorded since February 2017. That is not to trumpet a success because I will not be happy until the homelessness figures are driven down to the bare minimum.

My Department also published details on the number of adults exiting homelessness to a tenancy on a quarterly basis. Based on the information provided in the performance reports from the local authorities, the report for quarter 2 showed that, in the first half of this year, 3,033 adults exited homelessness into a tenancy. This represented a 7% increase on exits over the same period in 2019. There are, however, still too many households in emergency accommodation, many of whom I have visited since taking over as Minister. I am committed to addressing this.

One of the key measures we are implementing to resolve this crisis involves increasing the supply of housing. To this end, the programme for Government commits to the increased supply of public, social and affordable homes. In particular, we will increase the social housing stock by more than 50,000, with an emphasis on new builds. In the short term, as part of the July stimulus I considered how we could use our existing properties better and get them back into use. I refer to the void stimulus, the objective being to have 2,500 homes back in use this year. A sizeable proportion of them will be for the homeless, which is to be welcomed.

The programme for Government also recognises that many of those experiencing homelessness have additional support needs, which we have discussed this evening, and it includes specific measures to address these needs. These include measures to help rough sleepers to enter sustainable accommodation, the continued expansion of Housing First, to which we are committed, with the focus on construction and acquisition of one-bedroom homes and, importantly, ensuring there are dedicated resources and funding to deliver the necessary health and mental health supports required to assist homeless people with complex needs. I am working closely with my colleague, the Minister for Health, to make progress on the measures to be taken to enhance the health supports provided to homeless households, with a particular focus on Covid in the short term.

The Minister was given five minutes to respond.

There are three questions being taken together and in those circumstances the Minister gets additional time.

There are two issues, the first of which is the general homeless figures. I welcome that they are decreasing. That is a consequence of the eviction ban for which we have called for many years. Unfortunately, it has been largely lifted and I think we will see an increase in general homelessness as a consequence of that because evictions of those in private tenancies are the number one cause of homelessness and the number one reason for evictions is landlords selling, which will return and will drive that increase. There is a particular issue which should not be lost, namely, the increase in homeless single adults. The organisations involved are crying out about the crisis in this area. Anthony Flynn of Inner City Helping Homeless says that winter is going to be a major issue for that organisation and that deaths will skyrocket. Simon has warned that the figures in Dublin will go over 3,000 by Christmas and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is getting 15,000 calls a month. Within this general picture, we have a particular crisis in this regard which needs to be addressed.

The Minister mentioned Housing First and said there are certain individuals who fall into homelessness who require additional supports. I have always welcomed the Housing First programme, particularly in Louth County Council. There are also family situations that need whatever supports can be provided. Can the Minister provide any detail or a timeline in regard to the roll-out of family-orientated Housing First, in particular as regards Louth County Council?

While I welcome the call for housing, although we will have to wait to see what it produces, the real problem is that we are not producing enough one-bedroom units in the social housing pipeline. In my own constituency, the housing waiting list is over 4,000 households. The demand for one-bedroom accommodation is a staggering 43.5% of that figure. It was previously 33% but it has gone up. If that trend is replicated in the other urban areas and one compares that to the low number of one-bedroom units in the social housing pipeline - the Minister was not responsible for that pipeline but he is responsible for the future pipeline - we need to look at increasing the overall number of one-bedroom units in the direct delivery of social housing as well.

I will take the last question first. I agree with the Deputy. I have already met our delivery partners, the local authorities and the approved housing bodies. In any schemes that are brought to us, I want to see designs for community schemes that provide for a mix of units. I visited one such scheme yesterday with the Taoiseach in Balgriffin. More than half the units there are one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. There are also three-bedroom family apartments. We want a mix. It is true that that is what we need. We are playing catch-up.

The call for housing was never going to be a panacea. It will bring in extra stock in the short term but we need to build more and we need to design for a community. I will come back to Deputy Ó Murchú's question in a minute. Deputy Paul Murphy is correct that there is a specific issue with single adults who are homeless. We need to focus our attention on that issue. The homeless task force, which meets every Monday and is chaired by me, is focused on what we need to do. The Deputy mentioned a number of the agencies and homeless charities. Two of the three are involved in the task force which I chair. There are a number of delivery partners and organisations that I am dealing with and listening to in terms of their experiences on the ground. We need to do that.

We are running out of time on these questions.

On Deputy Ó Murchú's question on Housing First, our priority is to expand it into the rest of the country on a singles basis first. Where local authorities such as Louth County Council have other plans, they should bring them forward and we will have a look at them. Our focus must be on tackling homelessness and expanding Housing First as it exists.

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