Sir, – In her reflections on homeless policy, Mary Tully (January 2nd) makes a number of poorly informed comments about Focus Ireland which require a response.
Given the public concern about the financial transparency of charities, the most serious criticism Ms Tully makes is that, along with other organisations in the sector, our website “will show opaque if any disclosures of . . . (taxpayers’) funding”. In fact, a simple search of our website gives access to detailed audited accounts for 2012 and the previous 10 years. The website clearly sets out (in numbers and graphs) the sources of our funding and the fact that 90 cent of every euro of the finances we receive are spent on services. The quality and clarity of our financial reporting has been recognised by several awards from the accountancy profession. Focus Ireland takes very seriously our obligation to publicly account for all our finances – whether received from the taxpayer, donors or from our tenants. We do not expect credit for this level of disclosure; it should be the accepted norm of all bodies receiving public funds, but it is unfair to ignore the information which is freely available.
Ms Tully also states that she is “troubled” by the fact that while Focus Ireland (in partnership with Dublin Simon) is part-funded to provide an outreach and placement service for rough sleepers in Dublin, the number of people who are sleeping rough has been rising. Given her former role as principal officer responsible for homelessness policy, it is troubling that Ms Tully does not appear to understand the nature of the services she commissioned on behalf of the taxpayer, or the nature of the challenge we face in tackling homelessness.
The joint Rough Sleeping team is highly effective in making contact with people who are rough sleeping and supporting them into accommodation. However, they can only offer people emergency accommodation when the wider homeless service has beds available. The economic crisis, and some of the Government policy responses to it, have resulted in a dramatic increase in the numbers of people becoming homeless, and there is a regular shortage of emergency beds available for the rough sleeping team. The only assistance we can then offer is a sleeping bag, access to day services and support in trying to stay safe.
These problems are the result of the historic and current failures in national housing and welfare policies – and many other failures beside – and it makes no sense to ask that the people struggling to deal with these heart-breaking problems on the frontline be “called to account”.
People who face homelessness – and the voluntary organisations which serve them – rely on the Government and its officials to pursue policies which reduce the risk of homelessness occurring and assist them to find new homes quickly if they do become homeless.
The recent report of Minister of State Jan O’Sullivan’s Homeless Oversight Group correctly identified these issues – prevention and the need for access to affordable, decent housing. This report and its reception give us renewed confidence that the team now responsible for homeless policy in the Department of the Environment has fully grasped the fact that homelessness is both a complex and a solvable problem, requiring informed co-operation between the State and charitable sectors. – Yours, etc,
JOYCE LOUGHNAN,
Chief Executive Officer,
Focus Ireland,
High Street,
Christchurch, Dublin 8.