The report of the 1999 assessment of homelessness in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow, was prepared for the homeless initiative by the Economic and Social Research Institute and has been recently published. The report indicates that there was a total of 3,890 homeless people consisting of 2,900 adults and 990 dependent children in the area during the week of the survey. This survey differed from previous surveys in that it was carried out over a seven day period and is therefore more comprehensive. The survey formed part of the national assessment of homelessness carried out by local authorities on 31 March 1999 and the results of this assessment are being released today. This will indicate that there was a total of 5,234 homeless people in the country as a whole, of whom 3,992 were adults and 1,242 dependent children.
It is, of course, primarily a matter for the local authorities concerned in co-operation with the other statutory and voluntary agencies to formulate responses to meet the accommodation and welfare needs of homeless people in their areas. For my part, my Department will continue to afford priority to measures to meet the accommodation needs of homeless persons. In particular, the cross-departmental team on homelessness which was established under the aegis of my Department will have regard to the extent of homelessness recently assessed by both the ESRI report and by local authorities in preparing an integrated response to homelessness across a range of issues facing homeless persons. The issues to be addressed include matters relating to emergency and permanent accommodation as well as health, education and welfare matters. I expect that the cross-departmental team will finalise its report in the near future.
