Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 December 2023
10. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to report on the sharp increase in family homelessness, and what measures he intends to take to ensure that this trend is reversed as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54220/23]
View answerAs the Minister of State knows, as we head into Christmas, there are 13,000 people who are living in emergency accommodation. A particularly terrible aspect of that is the significant rise in family homelessness. More than 1,800 families are living in emergency accommodation, including 4,000 children. Those figures are consistently rising. I want to know what particular measures the Government will take to address family and child homelessness.
I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for his question. Supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is a key Government priority. Critical to supporting households to exit homelessness is increasing the supply of housing. Record State investment of €4.5 billion has been made available this year to support the largest State home-building programme ever, including 9,100 new-build social homes and 5,500 affordable homes.
Budget 2023 allocated funding of more than €215 million for the delivery of homelessness services. On 29 November, an additional €102 million was approved by the Cabinet by way of a Supplementary Estimate for the provision of homeless services in 2023. This brings the total now to €217 million for homelessness services.
Local authorities have been sanctioned to acquire at least 1,500 social homes, mainly focused on acquiring properties where a social housing tenant has received a notice of termination due to a landlord’s intention to sell the property. For private tenants at risk of homelessness who are not in receipt of social housing supports, the cost-rental tenant in situ scheme has also been introduced.
Housing for All includes measures to enhance family support and prevention and early intervention services for children and their families through a multiagency and co-ordinated response, and the dissemination of innovative practice. There is also a measure to identify and provide enhanced tenancy sustainment supports to families experiencing long-term homelessness to help them exit from homelessness and maintain their homes. These actions are being delivered in conjunction with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and Tusla. I continue to work with the national homeless action committee to ensure there is a continued focus by the various stakeholders to support households and individuals experiencing homelessness.
The Minister of State has quoted a lot of policies, figures and so on, but the important figure here is the number of people in homelessness, as well as the consistent rise, which has been pretty dramatic over the past months, in family homelessness. It is rising. The Government's policies are not working and, therefore, a number of children are going to go through the trauma of spending Christmas in emergency accommodation, in many cases for the second, third and sometimes fourth year in a row. There is all the mental health trauma that involves for children.
There are many aspects to this. First, we are not working with the families who are in this situation to get them out and we are not thinking outside the box. Second, where blocks and so on are being purchased by AHBs and local authorities, which I welcome and which I have pressed for, much of them are one and two-bedroom properties because that is what the developers are building. They are not building three and four-bedroom properties. We need three and four-bedroom properties to help families exit homelessness. That is the reason that family homelessness is rising. The Government needs to pay attention to that and do something about it.
We want a mixture of the type of units available. One and two-bedroom units are important and three and four-bedroom units are equally important. We note the point the Deputy makes and it is something we always look at. We are always looking for local authorities and AHBs to provide the three and four-bedroom properties as well.
I want to put it in context. Last year, 5,478 people were either prevented from going into homelessness or exited homelessness. For the first three quarters of this year that figure is 4,614. There are proactive measures to deal with getting people out of homelessness. Within the national homeless action committee there is a subgroup on children and families looking at that specific aspect. There is also a housing-led family support scheme. It is part of Housing for All and we are taking careful consideration of that. On children, the Taoiseach has set up a specific division with his Department to look at that.
Children should not be in emergency accommodation. I pressed for the tenant in situ scheme for years and the Government is doing it and it has made a difference. I have also pressed for the Government to buy social and affordable housing straight from the developers, which the Government is starting to do, and I welcome that. I am telling the Minister of State there are not enough three and four-bedroom properties. No child should be homeless but there should be a time limit for how long a child spends in emergency accommodation. It is wrong that there are children I know who have been in emergency accommodation for four years. That is utterly unacceptable. There needs to be a particular focus on ensuring that children do not end up in emergency accommodation, and if they do, that they get out. There are plans for more social housing and so on but many of them are too far down the list. We need to start buying three and four-bedroom properties.
In the context of this question, I wonder whether the Department has the capacity or maintains a database of properties that have been applied for, either directly for social housing or where there is a known element of social housing to be delivered in a private estate. Does the Department maintain a register of failed projects? I am specifically asking about the number of projects that are slipping through the cracks and not being delivered as a result of either objections or technical issues with planning applications. It would be helpful for us to see a broader picture of the flow of social homes, and what Deputy Boyd Barrett is referring to, family homes, or both. Those family homes will primarily come in private estates with a particular percentage that should be delivered as part of that housing application.
Deputy Boyd Barrett makes a clear point. He mentioned a specific case and I ask him to forward me details of that case and I will follow up on it. The tenant in situ scheme has been a great success. There have been 1,196 acquisitions to date and there are 1,000 more in the pipeline. Many of those are three and four-bedroom properties. I welcome the fact that the Deputy acknowledged that it has worked.
On Deputy Farrell's point, applications for funding come through the local authorities but they come based on applications they have received. If there is a Part V element it arises if the estate proceeds. I suggest that the Deputy writes to me on what he is specifically looking for so that we can feed it into the process. The Department deals with applications as they arise. Those applications flow through the local authority for social housing, either by way of Part V, through the capital assistance scheme or through the local authorities themselves. We had record numbers of homes built last year and we are on track with our output again this year but I ask the Deputy to write to us.
