Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 November 2023
33. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth what progress has been made by his Department on the eight areas of responsibility his Department has undertaken in respect of the 27 actions which are to be delivered upon in the national youth homelessness strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48544/23]
View answerI ask the Minister for a progress update on areas of responsibility for his Department under the national youth homelessness strategy that was launched last year. I would like a progress report on the eight areas for which his Department has responsibility.
The youth homelessness strategy steering group was established in January of this year under the auspices of the national homeless action committee of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Its purpose is to drive the delivery of all the actions set out in the national youth homelessness strategy and monitor progress.
My Department is represented on this group, which meets on a quarterly basis. The next meeting is scheduled for 22 November. The Department is also represented on the national homeless action committee, which is chaired by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien.
The focus of the Housing for All: Youth Homelessness Strategy 2023-2025 is to help 18 to 24-year-olds who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The three main aims are to prevent young people from entering homelessness, improve experiences of young people accessing emergency accommodation and assist young people as they leave homelessness.
As the Deputy said, my Department has eight areas of responsibility under the youth homelessness strategy, including support for those leaving State care, enhanced early intervention services for children and families and improving supports for young parents. Of the eight actions, work is advancing on four and one is complete, which is the publication of the strategic plan for aftercare. The four on which work are advancing are developing an information campaign for young people on their housing rights, an examination of improvements to family supports, a review of parenting support services for young parents and offering LGBTI+ homelessness training for homeless services. Work on a further three actions, the final three, will begin in Q1 of next year.
In terms of the action that has been completed, my Department is working with Tusla, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and local government. As the Deputy knows, Tusla has finalised its Strategic Plan for Aftercare Services for Young People and Young Adults 2023- 2026. This aligns with the youth homelessness strategy and also includes an appropriate continuum of accommodation for young people who are care experienced.
As the Minister is well aware, the plan was launched on 9 November last year, so we are quickly approaching the first anniversary of its publication in two days' time. Essentially, we are in the month of November. The strategy kicked in in January, so we are nearly one year through a three-year strategy. I ask the Minister to honestly give his assessment as to whether the strategy is working. The statistics do not lie. If we look at the youth homeless statistics from September, they show there are 1,510 homeless young people between the ages of 18 and 24. Over the course of the last year, that figure has actually increased by 20%. We are one third of the way through a three-year strategy and youth homeless figures have gone up one fifth by 20%. I will ask a genuine question as to whether the Minister sees this strategy as actually working. Is it having the positive impact it should or is there a broader issue in terms of the failure to get to grips with the housing crisis overall?
In terms of the elements our Department is responsible for, we identified, and this is identified in the youth homelessness strategy itself, that young people leaving care are some of the most vulnerable to falling into homelessness. That is why through my Department, working with Tusla, we prioritised the aftercare strategy for Tusla. It is part of its wider continuum of aftercare looking at foster care, residential services and aftercare. As the Deputy knows, the previous Minister brought in a statutory aftercare package from 2017 as part of the strategic plan for aftercare. The supports being put in place in that are being looked at. We are looking at things like the difference in treatment between a young person who remains in education or training or who does not and the continuation of the payment of the aftercare allowance. Therefore, issues like that in terms of the strategic plan for aftercare are being examined again because those are the young people who are most vulnerable to homelessness.
Absolutely, I appreciate that but when I talk about youth homeless figures of more than 1,500, I think the Minister will acknowledge that does not actually give the real figures because many young people - again, I hate to use statistics - are living longer at home and they are not captured by these figures. Nor do the figures include many young people who are sofa surfing. Young people who have come out of care, who the Minister described, have nowhere to go and end up sofa surfing or living with family or friends in overcrowded, cramped conditions.
Of course, the evidence is there with the number of young people on our streets the length and breadth of the State in areas we normally would not see any homeless people. More and more younger people are exiting the services about which the Minister talked who are ending up on the streets, increasing the figures. There is a real failure. We are one year through a three-year strategy, and I genuinely question whether the strategy is worth the paper it is written on because implementation is key.
Focusing on those young people who are most vulnerable is the best area for Government and for all Departments to focus their resources. As I said, I have set out what we are doing in terms of people exiting care. Another key group that has been identified and, indeed, Focus Ireland did a very good study on this, are young LGBTI+ people who are at risk of homelessness, particularly in terms of family tensions that may have occurred as a result of their coming out. That is why another one of the key elements we are working on is training for homelessness services in terms of the particular needs for LGBTI+ young people who are presenting at services. However, we are also looking at the other element of family support to see what we can do to prevent those tensions within families building up which actually cause young people to feel they have to leave home. That is why the focus on family supports is another one of the eight action points for our Department that we are prioritising.
