Dublin Corporation's housing policy discriminates against single people who sleep rough or who use homeless shelters, according to the Dublin Simon Community. Drawing on figures released to it by the Homeless Initiative, the housing charity says just five single people who use homeless shelters have been housed by the corporation in the past five months.
"Many of the single people who use our outreach and shelter services have experienced bias in allocation," said Mr Emmet Bergin, research and policy officer with Dublin Simon.
"Most would not even bother applying for housing and some have even been advised to sleep on a friend's floor rather than use our emergency accommodation, because this would handicap their application for housing."
Of the 724 people - all of them single - who used Dublin Simon Community's Usher Island emergency shelter last year, none was allocated housing by the corporation, he says.
However, Mr Damian Drumm, assistant principal officer in the corporation's housing unit, said there was "absolutely no discrimination against anyone" and that everyone making an application for housing would be "treated according to the same criteria as set out in the scheme of letting priorities".
Some 312 new lettings were made in the five-month period to the end of June, he said. "Of those, 137 were let to single people, 97 of which went to senior citizens, and of the remaining, 20 went to single people on the homeless list and 20 to people on the standard housing list."
He stressed that the definition of homeless used by the corporation did not necessarily mean sleeping rough.
"It also takes in people in bed and breakfast accommodation or who are staying with family or friends," he said. To be eligible for consideration for housing, an applicant must, in the opinion of the corporation, be in need of accommodation and unable to provide that from their own resources. There is also a points system. Among the factors which "earn" an applicant points are living in overcrowded accommodation, having a medical condition necessitating accommodation, being elderly, disabled or handicapped and being homeless.
Mr Bergin criticised the corporation's building policy, saying it favoured families. The corporation has not built any one-bedroom or studio apartment in the past year, though it does plan to buy 14 one-bedroom apartments in Kilmainham.
"We have been told directly that Dublin Corporation sees itself exclusively as a provider of family accommodation and of individual accommodation for senior citizens," said Mr Bergin.
Mr Drumm said he would be surprised to hear that some homeless people would not bother applying for housing.
"We are open to anyone applying," he said.
