A new strategy to tackle homelessness, to be operated jointly by health boards and county councils, was announced by the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy, yesterday.
Mr Molloy said he wanted to see action plans drawn up and ready to be implemented within three months.
"Homelessness - an Integrated Strategy" required forums to be set up in each county, he explained, with local authorities and health boards contributing co-ordinated three-year action plans to provide more accommodation and settlement and outreach programmes to help homeless people back into independent living.
Significantly, the strategy recommends eliminating the use of bed and breakfast accommodation for emergency use for families. At the moment homeless families, including the victims of domestic violence, are housed in B&Bs or split up.
It also targets at-risk groups such as those in jail or emerging from healthcare. Special high-support hostels for those with substance addiction or psychiatric problems are also to be set up.
Mr Molloy said the Government would double its planned spending on the homeless from £20 million to £40 million over the next five years, with another £6 million a year to fund voluntary bodies and £6 million to fund hostels for the homeless.
To oversee the development of services for the homeless each local authority is to set up a homeless forum under its Housing Strategic Policy committee.
Homelessness was a "significant issue", Mr Molloy said - in March last year 5,234 people, 4,000 of them in Dublin, were classed as homeless and 3,743 households were included in the State-wide figure.
"The Government has decided that local authorities will be responsible for the provision of emergency accommodation facilities and health boards will be responsible for the provisions of in-house care needs."
The strategy recognised and tackled the fact that many people sleeping rough on the streets had special needs, including addictions, he said, and different types of accommodation were required as hostels did not always cater for such people.
Behavioural risk factors, poor health, psychiatric problems and access to health services were all issues requiring action and they influenced the type of services the homeless needed. A separate emergency response should be directed at young people.
The strategy acknowledged the need for an increase in the financial contribution per bed-night to the voluntary bodies and the need for more settlement and outreach services.
The doubling of funding to £40 million will be mainly for sheltered, long-term accommodation. The £6 million provided annually by the Department of the Environment will fund the increase in bed-night contributions and the employment of settlement and outreach workers. The department will reimburse 90 per cent of the funding provided by local authorities.
The £6 million provided annually by the Department of Health and Children will go towards the voluntary sector which provides in-house care and it will be administered through the health boards.
