Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 January 2021
341. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the progress made on the programme for Government commitment to publish a youth homelessness strategy; his plans to engage with stakeholders in youth and homeless services in developing the strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45157/20]
View answer345. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if the Dublin Region Housing Executive or DRHE has responsibility for youth homelessness in the Dublin region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45163/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 341 and 345 together.
Supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is a key Government priority. The Programme for Government, Our Shared Future, commits to reducing and preventing homelessness. It sets out details on how the Government will approach this challenge, and includes a commitment to develop a National Youth Homelessness Strategy. Preparing this strategy will involve co-operation and co-ordination between myself and my colleague the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Key operational elements in the provision of supports to young people experiencing homelessness, or at risk of homelessness, fall within the responsibility of a range of agencies and stakeholder bodies, and it will be important that their views can form part of the process in developing the Strategy. My Department is currently engaged in preliminary scoping work in respect of the National Youth Homelessness Strategy and I expect that work on the Strategy will develop through 2021.
Upon my appointment as Minister, I established a High Level Homelessness Taskforce, to provide a forum for engagement with key organisations working to address homelessness. The Taskforce will also input on the implementation of the commitments on homelessness in the Programme for Government. The membership of the taskforce consists of the Chief Executives of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, Crosscare, Depaul, Focus Ireland, the Peter McVerry Trust, Dublin Simon Community and Threshold. Youth homelessness is one of the areas of interest in the work of the Task Force.
I am aware that the matter of youth homelessness is one of the issues addressed in recommendations made by the Dublin City Council Lord Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness in a report prepared in December 2020. I met with the Lord Mayor's Task Force on 11 December 2020 and note that the report recommends that a youth homelessness prevention and intervention strategy should be developed involving Dublin City Council and other agencies and stakeholders. I welcome this report and am currently considering its wider contents and recommendations, as they relate to my own role as Minister and that of my Department.
