Groups for the homeless disappointed

REACTION:HOMELESS ORGANISATIONS expressed disappointment with the Government's new strategy to tackle homelessness yesterday.

The Homeless Network, a coalition of 23 non-governmental organisations which provides services in Dublin, expressed concern that there was no guarantee that funds would be available to implement the plan.

Sam McGuinness, chairman of the Homeless Network and chief executive of Dublin Simon, said: “We had hoped that the strategy would indicate how various elements are to be funded, and that joint Department of Environment and HSE capital and revenue streams for interventions to address homelessness would be established. It does not.”

The groups also said a detailed implementation plan was necessary, and should be produced as soon as possible.

“Without this the new strategy has very little chance of providing desired results, if any at all,” Mr McGuinness said.

Focus Ireland’s chief executive Joyce Loughnan said she was disappointed that the plan failed to mention a target set by the National Economic and Social Council that 73,000 social housing units be built between 2004 and 2012.

“Ending homelessness and reducing the risk of homelessness requires greater investment in social and supported housing.

“Unless there is a serious political and financial commitment to deliver social housing, the likelihood is that many of the most vulnerable people in our society will continue to be at risk of homelessness,” she said.

The Simon Communities of Ireland said the strategy needed to be budgeted on a multi-annual basis if results were to be delivered.

“The implementation plan should set out where the funding to meet the targets outlined in the strategy will come from. It should give us assurance that the budget is there to fund the entire strategy over its life-span from 2008 to 2013, and not assigned on a year-by-year basis,” said Denis Doherty, chairman of Simon.

The most hard-hitting criticism of the plan came from the homeless agency Trust, which described the plan as a “smokescreen to justify even further cutbacks because there is already a serious shortage of emergency accommodation”.

The organisation’s director Alice Leahy said the strategy failed to acknowledge the reality of cutbacks to existing services, such as emergency beds.

“The use of the ‘vision’ in this strategy may sound well, but no one should be in any doubt that emergency accommodation is already in short supply because of cutbacks,” Ms Leahy said.

“And given current policy it will be even more necessary because the causes of homelessness, such as poverty, mental ill health, addiction and family issues, have been made much worse by recent cutbacks, especially by the HSE.”