Questions about immigrants' and returned Irish emigrants' rights to housing are highlighted in an unpublished report obtained by The Irish Times.
The report, written by Crosscare, the Social Support Agency of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, alleges immigrants and recently returned Irish people are being "refused" and "denied access to" homelessness services by statutory agencies.
Part of Crosscare’s remit is to work with destitute immigrants and also destitute Irish people abroad.
This report, which was brought to The Irish Times by its author, says the central placement service (CPS), which allocates emergency accommodation on behalf of Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE), has for "questionable reasons" been turning away migrants who have a right to housing support here.
Opportunity denied
It also says non-Irish nationals are being incorrectly denied the opportunity to apply for social housing.
The DRHE, which co-ordinates homeless services in Dublin, on Tuesday night rejected the conclusions of the report, saying: “A destitute migrant at risk of homelessness and referred to/presenting to CPS will be assessed and we will place the person or household into emergency accommodation...We always seek to prevent rough sleeping in Dublin and ensure an effective response.”
A spokesman said criteria, set out by central government, were applied when non-Irish nationals presented.
A 2012 Department of the Environment circular states: “All EEA nationals may be considered for assessment for social housing support from housing authorities if they are in employment/self-employed in the State.”
They may apply if not working if they are “temporarily unable” or are “involuntarily unemployed after having been employed for longer than a year”.
The EEA includes all EU states and Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Non-EEA nationals must prove an "aggregate of at least five years prior residence".
‘Summarily turned away’
The Crosscare report, dated March 2015, says however that these criteria are not being applied correctly and homeless non-nationals, who should be helped by the CPS, are routinely being “summarily turned away at the door...after cursory questioning as regards their nationality and/or period of residence in the country”.
It says they are referred to the New Communities Unit (NCU), which is operated by the Department of Social Protection (DSP).
The NCU, at Gardiner Street in Dublin, provides housing only in emergency situations.
The DSP said it did not keep records on how many non-nationals the NCU was providing emergency accommodation to.
However, it said, information for 2013 was gathered last year, which found “2,756 customers were accommodated on temporary basis over the twelve months”.
“This is an average of approximately 53 per week. The nationalities of those accommodated include Polish, Romanian, Moldovan, Lithuanian, Latvian, Nigerian, Bulgarian, South African, Somali and American.”
The report says a cohort of the true homeless population in Dublin is not being counted in the official homeless statistics.
The author of the report sought legal advice before bringing it to the media. “Should I need to do so, I plan to avail of the safeguards of the Protected Disclosures Act,” the author said.
The DRHE spokesman said the report “was not sought nor commissioned by DRHE. It is an internal report within a NGO service provider”. It could not be considered “reliable”, he said.
“This has been communicated to Crosscare. Notwithstanding this, DRHE takes these matters very seriously and has established a review of administrative arrangements with DSP/NCU to be undertaken in the forthcoming months in order to ensure compliance with best practice.”
Crosscare would not comment on it on Tuesday night.
