Analysis: Homeless crisis can be overcome

This is an achievable plan, though it will require concerted commitment and some new thinking from local and central government.

Having secured Cabinet support for the Implementation Plan on the State's Response to Homelessness, Minister of State for Housing Jan O'Sullivan today meets all 31 directors of housing from across the State.

She wants to see urgency, and changes in practice and she will "use a stick" with them if she has to, she told The Irish Times.

The focus of the plan is a very narrow group of people – the long-term homeless. They number according to the plan some 2,663 people. They comprise about 185 rough-sleepers across the State, according to a count from last November.

Some 139 of them were in Dublin, though this fell to 127 in the last count, conducted on April 8th.

The most recent data indicates there were 2,478 people in emergency accommodation, of whom 1,551 were in Dublin, with 596 in emergency accommodation for more than six months as of April 13th.

Of immense concern is the spiralling number of families with children presenting as homeless.

There are about 180 families with child dependents in emergency accommodation in Dublin alone. Since January, according to Focus Ireland, 128 Dublin families with 321 children have moved into hotel rooms.

A survey of housing waiting lists by The Irish Times found as of last week there were also 11 families with children in emergency accommodation in Cork city, 16 in Limerick, seven in Galway, three in Longford and three in Wicklow, with more in other parts of the State.

Long-term damage
The long-term damage, in terms of children's education, dietary health and emotional wellbeing of prolonged exposure to such living conditions is unacceptable.

The situation of these families is rightly described in the plan as an “emergency crisis”. Unless action is taken to secure and ringfence more suitable accommodation, the numbers will increase.

This plan is a blueprint for what needs to be done if long-term homelessness is to be ended by 2016.

The steps identified by the three-person Homeless Oversight Group appointed last year by Ms O’Sullivan, “can be achieved within the existing envelope of resources”, though this is becoming “increasingly challenging” as number presenting as homeless continue to increase.

It says 2,700 units of accommodation must be brought on-stream, specifically for the homeless, over the next three years. Some 900 units need to be delivered, this year, next and in 2016. Top of Ms O’Sullivan’s agenda in her meeting today will be a speeding up of the turn-around times for local authority dwellings once they become vacant. Of the 131,005 local authority housing units across the State, 3,668 are empty. Of these, just 770, or 21 per cent are available for letting.

This is not good enough, she says, and she is not happy that it is taking up to 49 weeks to re-let vacant dwellings.

The plan also says local authorities and approved housing bodies must give greater priority to homeless households in their housing allocations. This will "necessitate amending transfer policies".

Other housing
Potential sources of other housing, specifically for the homeless, include 1,849 Nama units "confirmed by local authorities as being suitable for housing" of which 1,321 are in the Dublin region; leasing repossessed properties from banks, and State-owned properties such as vacant Garda stations, former direct-provision centres, former hospitals and care homes and former Army living quarters. That such options are being considered indicates that the departments of Justice, Health, the OPW as well as the Department of Social Protection, have been summoned for assistance.

The Department of Children also has a remit in this crisis.

If Government is serious about tackling the growing homelessness emergency, yesterday’s full Cabinet sign-off on the plan must be the beginning of an ongoing cross-departmental commitment to the issue.