Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann – - welcomes the commitment of this Government to end long-term homelessness by 2016 and recognises that significant challenges are now emerging in relation to housing supply;
- welcomes the ring-fencing of funding for homeless services by the Government in budget 2013 and 2014;
- further welcomes the adoption of a housing-led approach to tackling homelessness, which involves access to permanent housing combined with appropriate ongoing support, as a core aspect of the Government’s homelessness policy statement of February 2013;
- notes however that the number of people presenting as homeless in the greater Dublin area increased in 2013;
- notes that an emerging shortage of affordable rental accommodation in Dublin and other urban centres is leading to an upward pressure on rents and that this is impacting on people at risk of homelessness and those seeking to exit homeless services;
- notes that under the recent Social Housing Assessment 2013, 89,872 households were assessed as qualifying for housing support, welcomes the announcement by the Minister that her Department intends to return to mainstream local authority housing construction in 2014 and welcomes in particular the announcement of a €100 million construction programme over 2014-2015 that will enable local authorities to construct approximately 600 new social homes in that period;
- welcomes the Minister’s commitment to progressing other social housing support measures including securing additional social housing units via NAMA and the roll-out of the housing assistance payment, HAP;
- asks the Minister to set out her views on the increase in the numbers presenting as homeless and the factors behind that increase, her proposals in the medium and long-term to end long-term homelessness and to remove the risks currently in the housing market leading to a further increase in those presenting as homeless; andalso asks the Minister to set out her views on the measures the Government has taken to increase housing supply through stimulation in the construction sector, measures to tackle the needs of those assessed as being in need of housing support, and the role of local authorities and approved housing bodies in the delivery of social housing supply over the lifetime of the Government.

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Jan O’Sullivan, to the House. The principal subject of the debate is homelessness. The motion before us today is timely and, even if we were not facing the issue of emerging homelessness, it would be appropriate to discuss the measures we are taking to achieve the Government’s commitment to ending long-term homelessness in 2016.

I very much welcome some of the measures this Government has taken, first and foremost the ring-fencing in successive budgets, in 2013 and 2014, of funding for homeless services. It is a mark of the Government’s, particularly the Minister of State’s, commitment to tackling the issue that this was achieved in the face of very tight budgetary constraints. I also welcome the change in direction during the term of this Government with the adoption of a housing-led approach to tackling homelessness, in line with the programme for Government. That involves access to permanent housing, combined with appropriate ongoing supports as part of the core package to deal with the issue, as outlined in the Minister of State’s homeless policy statement in February 2013.

Research dating back to 2011 shows that 78% of people who were at that time in homeless supports or emergency accommodation were capable of independent living. I suspect that number has increased in the past two years, given the changed profile of those presenting as homeless.

I also welcome the Government’s commitment to emphasising the prevention of homelessness. The triggers that lead people to homelessness are well known. That two out of every three children who experience care end up in homeless services is an outrage and can be addressed.

We face significant challenges in the area of homelessness. They relate not just to traditional homelessness, as we have known and experienced it, but directly to the macro economy and housing supply. The number of people presenting as homeless, particularly in the greater Dublin area in the past 12 months, has increased significantly. The Dublin Region Homeless Executive has reported an increase of 50% in those presenting as homeless. It is troubling that there is a different form of homelessness today, driven by affordability of housing and not by the traditional factors such as mental health or addiction issues, history of care or prison, or family breakdown.

I must declare an interest. I am chairperson of Threshold, a housing charity. The numbers presenting to our service who are at imminent risk of homelessness have doubled. Threshold’s placement service for those at imminent risk of homelessness or who are homeless has experienced an even greater increase. Focus Ireland has also reported significant increases, as have other voluntary organisations. I pay tribute to the voluntary organisations that work in the field. Their work at a very difficult time is a great service to the country. I also thank our colleagues in Dublin City Council who recently fought very hard to protect funding for homeless services and, if I may be partisan, in particular the Labour Party group on the council.

In this debate we need to consider the factors that are causing this dramatic change in circumstances and how to address them. We framed this motion with the idea of dwelling less on the specifics of how to tackle the numbers who are homeless and more on the overall blue skies picture of how that can be addressed. At the height of the housing boom 93,000 housing units were built. That was not justifiable when one considers that it exceeded the amount built by our nearest neighbour, the United Kingdom. A total of 8,500 units were built in 2012 but in the greater Dublin area household growth was 10,000.

We are dealing with an annual increase in demand for housing in the greater Dublin area of 10,000 units while, at the same time, we have produced fewer than 1,000 units in the Dublin area. We are dealing with a scenario where we have a growing need for housing that is not being addressed and, at the same time, we are also seeing a very significant rise in rents in the private rented sector. Threshold has reported, particularly at the bottom end of the market, that it is not at all uncommon at present to see people presenting to the service with rent increases of well over 20%.

The reality is we are now seeing significant numbers of families who are being put into homelessness services because they literally cannot afford their accommodation. While it is not the Minister of State's area, and this issue has to be taken in the whole, there is a particular issue with rent supplement, which has not kept pace with rents. Even in the bad days, rent supplement was not keeping pace with rents and was a problem back in 2009 and 2010 for single people in particular. It is not enough to say rents are increasing and that rent supplement has not kept up. It was a very big issue and it has now become a crisis.

This situation particularly impacts on the lowest 40% of the market, which involves people who are in receipt of social welfare payments, disability payments and so on. I know it is the Government's strategy to move towards the housing assistance payment, HAP, which will be in the Minister of State's Department and will place the payment of rents directly with the local authorities. Unfortunately, however, we will only see the rollout of pilot schemes for that in 2014 so we cannot look to it for any help in dealing with the homelessness issue in the near future. Nonetheless, I very much welcome that the Minister of State has been progressing the HAP system and also putting pressure on NAMA to roll out additional units.

I want to focus on the broader picture. I believe there are three particular strands to this difficulty and I would like to use my remaining time in dealing with these. First, we have to act to prevent people entering into homelessness by doing what can be done to secure their existing accommodation. This involves ensuring that where there is a crisis in existing accommodation, which is more likely to be private rented accommodation, that crisis is dealt with. I ask the Minister of State to use her discretion with the Minister for Social Protection to ensure that individual community welfare officers are empowered to use their discretion in regard to what are often fairly small sums. I am aware of people losing their homes for the sake of €50 or €100, yet it will cost the Minister of State's Department €30,000 a year to keep someone in emergency accommodation.

Second, I would like the Minister of State to move forward with some exploratory discussions in regard to introducing a cap on rent increases where increases are unwarranted. I am aware there are landlords out there who have no justification for the rent increases they are seeking, given they have incurred no additional cost and their properties are well bought and paid for, but who are taking advantage of the situation. We need to move towards a situation where people know with certainty, over a period of years, what level of rent increases they will face.

Third, I ask the Minister of State to consider legislation to prevent discrimination against people in receipt of rent supplement. I challenge anybody in this Chamber or outside it to go onto the most well-known website to see the number of advertisements where rent supplement is not accepted. In our own service, the access housing unit, a negligible percentage of landlords, 1.2%, actually accept rent supplement. It is ironic that we have gone so far to secure rights for other groups in society against discrimination but we have not moved against economic discrimination.

On the broader picture, we have an issue with construction. I would like the Minister of State to outline what can be done to prioritise overall construction in the Irish economy on a sustainable basis. Nobody wants to go back to where we were in 2004 to 2006 but, at the same time, we have to acknowledge we have gone too far in the other direction. We must prioritise those in most need. Any tax-driven incentive that can be geared to producing housing for those in most in need would be welcome. Germany is an example where there are tax-driven incentives for those who produce housing for those most in need. A proportion of all housing must be allocated on a pro ratabasis in the overall housing system to those most in need of housing. Had Part V been implemented - I have done research on this - it would have generated 27,000 units over its lifetime instead of the fewer than 3,500 units it generated. We have to use any instrument, such as REITs, PPPs or any other mechanisms, that can be beneficial in dealing with this crisis.

I would like the Minister of State to issue a circular to all local authorities in the State to tell them to make their best endeavours to examine existing housing and any voids they have in their stock, with regard to how these can be best used to move people who find themselves homeless out of homelessness as a matter of priority. I am aware there are local authorities that are not moving on their voids as quickly as they should.

I reject the Opposition's amendment which focuses way too much on NAMA as some sort of panacea for all of our ills. However, I would like some view from the Minister of State as to the kind of ping-pong that is going on between the local authorities and NAMA about why the local authorities will not take NAMA units and why NAMA can only come up with 4000 units. There are 10,000 rental units in NAMA ownership which should be brought into public ownership.