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Working with Homeless People
Homelessness - The Solutions
What Has Been Done
Since the development of the Governments Homeless Strategy in 1999 much has been done to improve services for homeless people however despite all the investment the numbers of people homeless remains high.
We can nonetheless be sure that without the investment over the past six years even greater numbers would now be homeless.
The Homeless Agency, a voluntary/statutory partnership, in Dublin has been instrumental in resourcing and supporting a number of key developments:
- Significant numbers of homeless people have been accommodated in Local Authority Housing, Voluntary Social Housing and Private Rented Accommodation.
- At Merchants Quay we have been able to expand our range of day care services for homeless people to include meals, information and advice, primary health care, counselling, education and training and settlement support.
- New hostels catering to the needs of homeless persons with alcohol or drugs problems have been developed by DePaul Trust, Dublin Simon and others.
- A city wide 'Tenancy Sustainment Service' has been set up to support those who have been settled into accommodation and to prevent them from becoming homeless again.
- Many hostels for homeless people have been improved or upgraded.
- Street outreach services for Rough Sleepers have been improved
These improvements cost money. Funding for homeless services for the entire country was just €12.5 million in 1999 and this has increased to over €50 million, in 2006 [1] but the investment has paid off.
The number of people sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin fell by a third between 1999 and 2005 [2][3][4] and there has been a 19 per cent drop in the number of people experiencing homelessness. Despite these positive gains, we still have a situation where:
- There are more than 2000 homeless people in Dublin alone.
- At least 185 adults are sleeping rough on Dublin's streets every night
- A large proportion of those homeless (43 per cent) have been homeless for over three years.
- Over a quarter of those homeless are children
- A significant number of foreign nationals (approximately 180) now find themselves homeless
In light of this, it is clear that much remains to be done.
What Needs to be done
Merchants Quay Ireland is committed to working in partnership with Government to eliminate long term homelessness and the need for people to sleep rough by 2010 [5] . We outline below what we believe must be done to achieve this target:
- Sufficient local authority and voluntary social housing must be built to house those experiencing long term homelessness. This means an additional 500 such units per year.
- Tenancy support services aimed at preventing homelessness amongst those at risk need to be expanded across the country.
- Nobody should be discharged from Hospitals, Mental Health Services, Prisons or Residential Childcare without a home to go to.
- Family Support, Mediation and other services aimed at preventing homelessness must be adequately resourced.
- Currently the Governments 'rent allowance' offers the only realistic path out of homelessness for many single people. But the amount given often does not come near the actual rent payable and people often top up from their own scarce resources or live in sub standard accommodation. It is estimated that 40% of people in the private rental sector rely on rent allowance(Threshold 2005). The gap between the amount of allowance given and actual rent costs puts these people directly at risk of homelessness [6]
- There are increasing numbers of non-nationals particularly those from Eastern Europe accessing homeless services. This is a result of the Governments 'Habitual Residency Condition' (HRC) which in practice means that most new immigrants to Ireland are not entitled to social welfare or rent allowance, leaving many destitute. The HRC should be scrapped as it is a direct cause of homelessness.
- Almost one third of homeless people in Dublin are heroin users. Innovative harm reduction initiatives, low threshold treatment services and accessible long term accommodation options need to be further developed for homeless drug users
The goal of Zero Homelessness by 2010 is achievable as long as the political will and human and financial resources are in place.
SOURCES1. Noel Ahern Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government as quoted in a press release from the Dept of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government dated 24/4/03 http://www.environ.ie
2. Williams, J & M. O'Connor (1999) Counted In: The Report of the Homeless Assessment in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow. Homeless Initiative.
3. Economic & Social Research Institute (2002) Counted In: The Report of the 2002 Assessment of Homelessness in Dublin. Homeless Agency
4. Wafer, U (2006) Counted In 2005. Homeless Agency and SPSS Ireland.
5. Homeless Agency Vision http://www.homelessagency.ie/about_us/vision.html accessed June 21, 2006
6. Threshold (2005) Seeking a Home on Rent Supplement: Experience in Cork City 2004
This fact sheet ©Merchants Quay Ireland 2006 |
