Ms Niamh Randall:

I thank the Chairman and the committee for inviting us to appear before them today. As the Simon Communities in Ireland, Focus Ireland and Threshold are working to tackle homelessness and the housing crisis, we have agreed to share our time to be more informative and useful but also to avoid repetition for the members. I will set the scene briefly, examine some of the solutions and then hand over to Mr. Mike Allen from Focus Ireland and Mr. Bob Jordan from Threshold.

As everybody is aware, we are in the middle of a homelessness and housing crisis. More people are at risk of homelessness, more people are becoming homeless, and more people than ever are turning to services for support. The Simon Communities of Ireland has reported a 24% increase in the number of people turning to our services in our most recent annual report, and the numbers continue to grow. There are approximately 90,000 households on the social housing waiting lists. Rents have increased by about 9% nationally and at different amounts in terms of urban centres; it is about 14% in Dublin. The number of properties available to rent has declined sharply to just under 6,000 properties on 1 May this year. Rent supplement levels are proving insufficient to meet the cost of many rental properties.

With this lack of available social housing and barriers preventing people accessing houses in the private rental sector, it has become much more difficult for people to secure affordable and appropriate accommodation. That is not just causing homelessness. It is also preventing people leaving homelessness, with people who are homeless effectively trapped in emergency accommodation for far longer than is appropriate.

Cutbacks to funding for housing support, health services, probation and welfare, education and training, etc., have knock-on effects that contribute to homelessness. That combination of factors can trigger homelessness in the first place but can also prevent people moving out of homelessness because they do not have the necessary support.

It is clear that austerity budget measures are having the biggest impact on the people who are the most vulnerable. A significant policy shift is required to address the growing social housing and income adequacy needs. The reliance on the private sector to provide social housing only has demonstrably failed. We need sustainable investment in social housing and a large provision in the private rented sector. That needs vision, decisiveness, political will and commitment on the part of practitioners and providers to deliver quality social housing but it also needs to be resourced.

It is in this context that the Government has committed to ending long-term homelessness and rough sleeping by 2016 using a housing-led approach. Housing-led approaches are extremely effective in addressing and ending homelessness for good. That is Government policy, and we wholeheartedly support this approach, but housing-led approaches are also predicated on the availability of support appropriate to each person's needs. That might be support to live independently with regard to cookery skills, budgeting and tackling loneliness and isolation but for some people it also means helping them to address mental health issues, physical health issues, and drug and alcohol issues.

Resources must allow for the diversity of needs but also the fluctuation in needs. For example, if somebody reaches a mental health crisis it is vitally important that the level and intensity of support can be increased just for that period to help them get through the crisis and remain in their tenancy. The level of support can then roll down once the crisis has ended. It is clear that ending homelessness requires more than just housing, but housing is a central piece of this jigsaw and remains the single greatest barrier to implementing a housing-led approach.

The Government must reappraise the upfront investment required to generate the flow of accommodation that, along with support, will enable people who have been homeless to take up sustainable housing options. Responses must be nationally driven but locally delivered to ensure people can remain in their communities where they have family and support networks. This is especially important when people run into difficulties, be it housing or income difficulties.

We need to find more options and better, more sustainable ways to house people in the longer term. Critical to that is preventing people becoming homeless, and then supporting people to make the smooth transition out of emergency accommodation to independent living. Crucial elements to achieving this are income adequacy, housing, rent supplement, and health and social care supports. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Department of Social Protection and the Health Service Executive, along with other Government Departments, play a vital role in ensuring access to housing, social welfare, and the critical support services that offer the most effective means both of preventing homelessness but also supporting people to move out of homelessness.

To address this housing and homeless crisis, we urgently need access to housing and access to support in housing, but also action to prevent homelessness and the recurrence of homelessness. We urge the members to support us in our call to ensure that the Government takes on these issues in budget 2015.