Deepening pessimism about ending long-term homelessness by 2016 is outlined in a high-level report to the Minister for Housing.
Written on July 4th by the Homelessness Oversight Group, the report says the 2016 target, as set out by former minister Jan O'Sullivan, is becoming increasingly politically difficult as other households compete for scarce housing resources.
The report urges relevant bodies to implement politically sensitive plans “urgently”.
It says data on homelessness “indicates that significant progress has not been made toward the 2016 goals”.
The three-page report, which has been seen by The Irish Times, is a statement of the group's "interim observations in respect of the progress being made" towards the 2016 goal. It is signed by the three-person oversight group of Prof Tony Fahey of UCD, former civil servant Sylda Langford, and Mark Kennedy, lead partner in corporate accountancy at Mazars.
The group was appointed by Ms O’Sullivan in February last year to identify how the goal of ending enforced long-term homelessness by 2016 could be achieved.
Sleeping rough
The group notes deteriorating data on homelessness, including the increasing number of people sleeping rough in Dublin and the “decline in the number of homeless moving on to normal tenancies”.
“Evidence suggests that there has been a significant reduction in access to private rentals and a reduction in the allocation of social housing since Q2 2013.”
It says the number of people in emergency accommodation in Dublin for more than six months was 581 in the first three months of this year.
“Data available at June 22nd, 2014, shows that 2,385 persons country-wide were in emergency accommodation, with 1,548 of those persons in the Dublin region. The Dublin region at the end of Q2 2013 had 1,365 persons in emergency accommodation.
“This data indicates that significant progress has not been made towards the 2016 goals during the period.”
Relatively small
It says the long-term homeless population is “relatively small” and “it should be possible to provide those persons with appropriate housing by 2016”. However, it will require the “ring-fencing” of housing specifically for this group.
“The resources may be limited and the design issues tricky, including administratively and politically. As a practical response we urge that [the relevant bodies] act quickly to execute their plans.”
This “poses challenges to existing [housing management] approaches. In particular it may compete with the goal of reducing the numbers on the social housing waiting list. Nonetheless, we continue to believe that it is a necessary step if the 2016 goals are to be realised.”
