Ms Eileen Gleeson:

I am the director of the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive. I thank the Chairman and committee members for the invitation to today's meeting to discuss Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. Mr. Anthony Flynn from Dublin City Council and I will outline the progress made to date on Rebuilding Ireland in the case of Dublin City Council. The Dublin Regional Homeless Executive is operated by Dublin City Council and oversees the delivery of a range of homelessness services on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities. We provide a co-ordinated response to the needs of both families with children and individuals experiencing homelessness. Our functions are to direct client services through placements, allocations and provision of facilities, including operation of the housing assistance payment for homeless households; corporate support including finance, research and communications; and sectoral development and co-ordination through training and learning and provision of integrated services and quality standards.

Our first role is tenancy protection. Prevention is better than cure. We have had a tenancy protection service in place since 2014 and it has been very successful. In the period from January to March 2017, 805 households contacted the service. Of the 405 that were at risk of homelessness, 356 tenancies have been protected to date and the remainder are being worked with. None has entered homelessness.

In addition, we have had a specific prevention team at Parkgate Hall to deal with new families presenting there since February. These prevention officers work with the families who present daily to prevent them from entering emergency accommodation by assisting them directly with their housing situations. To date, this has prevented another 150 families from entering homelessness. The success of the initiative is driven largely by the homeless HAP scheme.

Regarding family homelessness, I have outlined in the report the trends in respect of homeless adults accessing emergency accommodation and where they are housed. The table on page 2 shows the drop in the use of hotel accommodation and the upward trend in the use of emergency accommodation - that is, supported temporary accommodation units, STAs, which are the family hubs. Under Rebuilding Ireland, the use of commercial hotels by homeless families was to be phased out by the middle of this year except in emergency cases. At the end of October 2016, 813 family households were in emergency accommodation in commercial hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation. Between then and the end of June, 842 households were moved to more appropriate accommodation. It is expected that a further 533 families will be moved over the period from July to September. The breakdown of this is outlined in the report. It is important to note that on average, 80 families per month are entering homelessness despite the effort to prevent this.

The family hubs have been in the media over the past few days again as we opened the latest one in Drumcondra this week. The intention is that family hubs will be the first response for families that become homeless and currently have no alternative other than commercial hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation. Family hubs are not a long-term housing solution. Families will move into houses and apartments when they become available. In the hubs they will be provided with support to work them through to more permanent-type accommodation that is suitable for families. The details of the family hub facilities currently planned, under development or in operation are outlined in the report. We will continue to source alternative and additional properties to add to the stock of family-appropriate emergency accommodation. In addition to what I have outlined, eight commercial properties throughout the region are being adopted as family accommodation and will cater for nearly another 300 families. All families in hubs retain their priority on the relevant social housing lists and will be allocated homes when they become available.

I have outlined in the report the rough sleeper count as of April 2017. The spring count showed 161 persons confirmed sleeping rough on the night in question. Of that figure, there were 23 sleeping on Henry Street who were non-Irish and who, as we discovered later, had arrived in the country in the previous days. A majority of those have repatriated. We have worked with them through our housing first and outreach teams and they have returned to their country of origin.

The number of nightly placements into emergency accommodation for each quarter in the Dublin region is set out in a table in the report. On average, we place 243 people into emergency accommodation every night of the week. This has decreased because of the way in which we are operating the system. There has been a reduction in the number of placements as a result of our "rolling bed" initiative, by which people who present for one-night-only beds regularly are booked in for longer periods and prioritised for access to supported temporary accommodation that becomes available. While they are in the temporary accommodation, a kind of case management system works with them. This reduces the need for individuals to ring the freefone number every day and links them into the services more efficiently. In line with the key actions in Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness to ensure an adequate supply of accommodation, the DRHE will continue to source additional premises in the Dublin region for use as emergency accommodation for both families and single persons.

I will hand the committee over to Mr. Anthony Flynn to continue.