Ms Tríona O'Connor:

With regard to comments made by Mr. O'Connell about working with people who are vulnerable, and picking up on points raised by Deputies Ryan and Ó Broin around the different lengths of stay in emergency accommodation, from our perspective in the mid-west region, of the 227 people who were in Limerick and Clare hostels last year, only 11% went on to private rental and local authority housing. It must be asked where are the rest of those people going. They staying in hostels much longer because of the chronic need.

Reference was made to the homeless budget and I believe there was a question on how much we think we need. The European Observatory on Homelessness states that it costs €29,000 per year to keep one person in emergency accommodation. Deputy Ryan asked what are the solutions. For us it is about acquisition, as referred to by Mr. Declan Dunne. We have been in this process in Limerick. Focus Ireland was awarded the highest allocation of CAS properties in the country last year, with an allocation of 44 units of accommodation. Hallelujah. We were delighted. It turned out to be 17 houses because each unit is considered a bedroom, so it was not hallelujah anymore. We still have not delivered on those CAS properties because of bureaucracy. It has taken 12 months, in a serious housing crisis, to deliver on that. As a specific solution, we have come up with the social rental model as an option.

As I said, it costs €29,000 per year to keep one person in emergency accommodation. For €20,000, we have moved ten families out of such accommodation. This started in Cork as a pilot project between the different voluntary organisations and it moved to Limerick. We were lucky to be funded by the local authority, which saw merit in a pilot we proposed. Basically, we go in as the tenant. We rent from the landlord directly and then we sublet. It is not rocket science. We are able to manage the different needs the family would present with, because there is a worker dedicated to that household. As Ms Fiona Barry stated, the chronic issues people present with need to be managed, but they can be managed from their homes. We now have an extension of the funding and are looking at housing 18 families between Limerick and Clare over the next 12 months, which is fantastic.

There is a difference between rural and urban issues. There is a recognition that there is a homelessness crisis outside of Dublin as well, which is something we feel very strongly about. I am sure Mr. Aaron O'Connell will agree with me on that. When we, as in our alliances, meet we talk about that a lot. Our numbers are not the same - they are not as high - but there is still a significant number of people in emergency accommodation. These are families and children whom it is affecting. On that point, there are different needs throughout the country when it comes to urban and rural. What one finds in the rural areas is that people need to come into the urban towns. People need to come in from parts of County Clare such as Kilrush or Kilkee into Ennis. Ennis only has a 12-bed hostel. It has nothing else to provide them with.

The other aspect following on from that is domestic violence, which is a huge issue when it comes to what we discuss in the Limerick and Clare Homeless Alliance. In Limerick and Clare last year, in 2015, 297 families were turned away from the refuges in the region - ADAPT House and Clare Haven Services - because there is a lack of beds. Domestic violence is a huge issue affecting families in rural areas, yet it is not counted in the statistics as homelessness. That is because of the different funding streams. Domestic violence services are funded by Tusla and, therefore, are not counted in our statistics when we are presenting on homeless families. This is something we wanted to highlight as it is definitely an issue we face in rural areas.

I will make a final point on the housing assistance payment, HAP. I do not know the situation in Cork but we are finding that landlords are not signing up to the HAP scheme. There is too much bureaucracy. There is added bureaucracy with the HAP that was not there before. Yes, it is a solution but it is something that is not being taken up by landlords because of all the different forms, etc., they have to hand in. That is something we are concerned about.