Funding of €242m in budget for provision of homelessness services

Funding of €242 million will be made available for the provision of various homelessness services under Budget 2024. The allocation will go towards services supporting people experiencing – or at risk of – homelessness, including emergency accommodation, homeless prevention measures and tenancy sustainment.

It will also go towards helping families in emergency accommodation to exit homelessness “as quickly as possible”. It said the Government would keep this level of funding “under continual review” in 2024.

The allocation represents an increase in funds allocated for homelessness services in last year’s budget, when €215 million was made available.

In addition to the €242 million allocation, €35 million will be invested in Housing First, a Government initiative aiming to provide a “comprehensive and holistic approach” to tackling homelessness.

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Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said providing housing was a priority of the Government, and it expected to exceed a target of 29,000 new homes built by the end of the year: “Housing delivery is performing strongly.”

In total more than €5 billion has been allocated for the provision of housing in 2024.

Pearse Doherty, the Sinn Féin spokesman on housing, criticised the Government’s response to the housing and homelessness crisis in a speech delivered to the Dáil.

“The housing crisis is the Government’s greatest failure,” Mr Doherty said. “The level of homelessness has broken all new records month after month. What an indictment, on this Government, which has billions of euro at its disposal, that nearly 4,000 children woke up this morning in emergency accommodation. Shame on you for not changing course and setting a path to make things right in this budget.”

Wayne Stanley, executive director of Simon Communities of Ireland, said Tuesday’s budget was one of “incrementalism”, when what was required was “exceptional action, strident moves forward”.

“That, in the round, is not what we saw,” Mr Stanley said.

While an increased allocation for homelessness services was welcome, Mr Stanley said, he noted it was also an indication that the number of people seeking to avail of those services was likely to continue rising in the months ahead.

“Obviously we need to see the details... I suspect that additional funding is needed, it’ll be needed because we’ll need to increase the services and the beds for people who are experiencing homelessness.”

He welcomed the €35 million investment in the Housing First initiative. “It’s through Housing First you lift people out of homelessness, you provide the wraparound supports, and people who were 10, 15, 20 years in homelessness, that length of time, maybe rough sleeping, have been very successfully housed and supported to maintain their accommodation.”

Figures released at the end of September showed the total number of homeless people has increased by 17.5 per cent in the past year, from 10,805 to 12,691. The number of homeless children and families has risen by 21 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, in the past year, with single adult homelessness up by 10 per cent.

Nationally, the number of homeless children increased to 3,895 in 1,886 families at the end of August, up from 3,829 children in 1,839 families in July.