Eoin Ó Broin
Ceist:63. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the additional measures he plans to introduce in 2024 to address the deepening homelessness crisis. [7243/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 15 February 2024
Ceisteanna (63)
Freagraí ó Béal (29 píosaí cainte)
As the Minister will be aware, the December homeless figures showed a record 13,318 people, including 3,962 children, in emergency accommodation funded by his Department. That is a 20% increase in family homelessness on the previous year but there was a month-on-month increase in single-person homelessness and pensioner homelessness. While I welcome the fact there was a slight decrease in family homelessness month on month, as the Minister will be aware, homeless charities have said that is more than like the seasonal dip and they are worried homelessness will continue to increase. Can the Minister outline what new measures he will take this year to finally get this homelessness crisis under control?
As the Deputy will be aware, supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is a key priority for me and the Government. Critical to supporting households to exit homelessness is increasing supply. Thankfully, we are seeing supply increase substantially. At the end of quarter 1, we will have our social housing and affordable numbers for 2023 which I predict will show an increase on the previous year.
Record State investment of more than €5 billion has been made available this year to support the largest State home building programme ever, including 9,300 new build homes - that is just the new-build piece. The Government has also approved the continuation of the tenant in situ scheme, which is an important preventative measure. It has been very successful. Last year, we set out a minimum target of 1,500. I do not have the final figure on that but I can tell the House it is between 1,700 and 1,800 of concluded sales - fully closed. There are others going through the process.
I have approved, through local authorities, an additional 1,500 acquisitions where a landlord issued a notice of termination. The scheme is working and I want to ensure that continues. Initial issues with it in some local authorities have certainly been ironed out.
In relation to homelessness itself, we have a budget this year of €242 million for the delivery of homeless services. The funding will support households experiencing homelessness with emergency accommodation and wrap-around support. Anyone who finds himself or herself in homelessness will be supported by the State in emergency accommodation. We want to ensure that they are staying less time there and exiting into permanent secure housing. I will come back in the supplementary with the number of exits and preventions that had last year, which are increasing. We saw a slight decrease in December overall but we have a lot more work to do in that space, particularly around ensuring that the allocations to homeless individuals and families increase into the new social housing that I expect to see this year.
When the December figures were published, Simon Communities stated that homelessness is poised to increase in the coming months. They would know because they are on the front line.
The problem is there is a growing gap between the answers that the Minister gives to these questions on the floor of the Dáil and the reality for many thousands of adults and children who are experiencing homelessness. Since Deputy O'Brien has been Minister, homelessness has gone up a shocking 61%. Child homelessness has increased by 74%. I do not accept, even if all of the actions that the Minister has outlined come to pass, that this, in and of itself, will start to have homeless numbers reduce. Will the Minister do anything new or different this year to last year to address this escalating crisis? Even if the Minister meets his 9,100 new build social housing target for last year, homelessness increased by 20% over the past year. Moreover, increasing social housing output this year by an extra 200 units to 9,300 will not tackle this. Will the Minister do anything different or will homeless continue to rise month on month under his watch?
Supply, I think everyone agrees, is key. If one looks at where we have come from when this Government came into office and since Housing for All, we have exceeded our overall housing delivery targets, not only on social housing but across the board. We need to do that. We need to ensure that we have a stable private rental sector as well.
There are many reasons people fall into homelessness. I work directly with the Simon Communities. I, myself, chair the national homeless action committee and I deal with all the stakeholders. I commend them on the work that they do.
It is a complex issue, however. I noted with interest the Deputy's remarks about eradicating homelessness for over 55s. Approximately 42% of people in homeless emergency accommodation here in Dublin, which is where homelessness predominates, do not have an entitlement to social housing.
Not true.
It is correct.
That is not true.
I ask Deputy Ó Broin to not interrupt me and let me answer the question. The Deputy can come back in.
That is correct. Effectively, what one needs is different supports for different people. We have new arrivals. We have people coming into homelessness due to family break-up, not only through the private rental sector.
I note, by the way, that the Deputy had a motion that he had tabled as a matter of urgency in relation to supports that we brought in to ensure that we were supporting and ensuring that good landlords stayed in the market. Sinn Féin withdrew the motion calling for that abolition and brought in a motion in relation to RTÉ funding instead.
The homeless figures:
make grim reading with no progress made in terms of stemming the flow of families presenting as homeless or moving people out of emergency accommodation into long term housing. Consistent increases in the overall homelessness numbers over the past five years despite regular announcements of plans and strategies have destroyed confidence in the ability of the political system to deliver.
Those are not my words. Those are the Minister's words in 2018.
It is not the case that more than 40% of people in emergency accommodation to not have an entitlement to social housing. The facts of the matter are 40% do not have a social housing application at the point at which they become homeless.
But the majority of those people, and this is directly from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, go on to apply and get successfully accepted as having a social housing need. The Minister is deliberately misleading the House to distract from the fact that as long as he has been Minister, homelessness continues to rise. What did he say when Eoghan Murphy was raising homelessness? He said "You can't really blame citizens for feeling disenchanted with the political system that continually fails on an issue that, to most people, is easy to fix." Yet here he says it is complex. He is responsible for record levels of homelessness. Is he going to do anything different this year to tackle a problem that he, since taking office, has made worse?
First, Deputy Ó Broin is absolutely incorrect about social housing entitlements but that never gets in the way of him making any remarks in here.
The Minister is misleading the House and he will have to correct the record.
Stop interrupting, Eoin. I have just started. Let me answer.
Through the Chair.
It is the second time he has done it. I am just saying.
Yes. Well. Perhaps give the Chair a chance.
Sorry.
You should not be allowed mislead the House, Minister.
Well that is a charge that the Deputy has made here that he should withdraw. A number of weeks ago, Deputy Ó Laoghaire made a charge to this House that I had misled the Dáil when I put facts on the record. I asked the Deputy's colleague to write to me and to the Ceann Comhairle to outline exactly what was incorrect and I am still awaiting a letter from Sinn Féin.
Stick to the question. What is the Minister going to do about record homelessness?
Deputy-----
I am still awaiting a letter from you.
What are you going to do about record homelessness? This is not a laughing matter, Minister.
Deputy. That is unacceptable.
I am laughing at you, Eoin.
Smirking at such an important issue.
Both Minister and Deputy are completely ignoring the Chair. Thirteen seconds remain to answer the question.
Apologies, Chair.
I have never ignored the Chair’s ruling. The Deputy has continually interrupted me.
If I could answer in this regard, one could look at last year and those who exited emergency accommodation. Some 2,815 adults exited emergency accommodation by way of a tenancy being created and over 4,000 adults were prevented from entering emergency accommodation. One could look at some other counties around the country on a 12-month basis. Kildare is down by 29%; Wicklow by 21%; Longford by 36%; Limerick by 7%; and Monaghan is down by 30%. There is an acute issue in Dublin that we are committed to dealing with. We are increasing housing supply, as the Deputy knows, but he likes to deny that progress. He cannot deny that progress, however.
We are way over. I have allowed extra time.