Peter McVerry Trust raises doubts over plans to deliver housing

The Peter McVerry Trust is reviewing plans it had to provide 500 homes to move people out of homelessness over the next three years, due to the financial crisis facing the charity.

Several local authorities are in talks with other housing bodies to take over projects councils had been planning to develop with the trust.

The homelessness charity has confirmed it is conducting a review of housing developments it had in the pipeline, to determine which ones it can proceed with given its current financial challenges.

“We are examining our capacity and role in the potential delivery of 500 additional homes through purchase, lease and construction which were earmarked for delivery out to 2026,” the charity said.

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The trust has been grappling with a financial crisis since the middle of this year, which has seen the charity come close to collapse. It is facing trade creditor liabilities of about €7 million, with some suppliers issuing legal threats to the organisation seeking payments.

In a lengthy statement to The Irish Times, the charity said there had been “unprecedented demand” on its homeless services in the past three years, which had “stretched an organisation that was already overstretched”.

The charity admitted that it had potentially expanded too quickly in recent years, in response to the deepening homelessness crisis.

“There is no doubt, with the benefit of hindsight and considering the inflationary impacts and construction delays associated with Covid-19 and geopolitical events, a more cautious approach to expansion would have been more prudent,” the statement said.

Dublin City Council is in talks with other organisations to take over four housing projects from the trust, with council officials examining how to progress a further eight projects that had been in train.

Roscommon County Council, Sligo County Council and Longford County Council also confirmed they were looking for other housing bodies to undertake projects they had started with the Peter McVerry Trust.

Several other local authorities said they would be reviewing planned housing developments that involved the trust in the coming weeks.

The charity said previous financial projections for how much State funding it would need to run homeless services were no longer “aligned to present realities”, due to inflation and fundraising difficulties.

Last month the trust sought a bailout of about €8 million from the Government, which Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien is considering.

Some interim funding was agreed to be provided to the charity in the past week to ensure it could continue to run its services in the short term.

The trust, one of the largest providers of homeless services in the country, is predominantly State funded, receiving more than €40 million from public bodies last year.

The charity is facing parallel investigations from the Charities Regulator and the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority, into financial and governance issues.

Separately, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) is planning to commission independent audits of all charities it funds to run homeless services, in the wake of the crisis facing the Peter McVerry Trust. Senior officials in the State agency are drawing up the terms of reference for the audits of other organisations in the sector.