Mary Wallace
Ceist:153 Miss M. Wallace asked the Minister for the Environment the number of homeless women and children in each of the last ten years; and the efforts undertaken by his Department to monitor their situation. [8887/95]
Written Answers. - Homeless Persons Statistics.
Information in the form requested is not available in my Department. Assessments of the number of homeless persons carried out by local authorities in March 1991 and March 1993 showed, respectively, totals of 2,751 and 2,667 homeless persons, excluding individual homeless persons under the age of 18 years the accommodation of whom is the responsibility of health boards under the Child Care Act, 1991. Neither assessment included a breakdown of the numbers of homeless people on a gender or age basis.
Local authorities are responsible for the accommodation of homeless persons and for monitoring the position in relation to homelessness in their area. My Department provides capital funding through the capital assistance scheme for the provision of accommodation for homeless people by voluntary bodies in addition to housing provided by local authorities under their housing programmes. My Department also recoups 90 per cent of local authorities' expenditure under section 10 of the Housing Act, 1988 on the accommodation of homeless people.