Ms Eileen Gleeson:

We are responding to a homeless crisis and providing emergency accommodation every day of the week. We are working with those providing emergency accommodation. Providing emergency accommodation is not without its challenges. We have extra people on the streets working with people who are rough sleeping. It is not humanely possible to put an emergency accommodation facility exactly where it is needed. There are other challenges related to putting the emergency accommodations, namely, the physical buildings, in place. We have put emergency accommodation in place. Granted, the majority of it is in the city centre but there are also emergency accommodations in the other local authorities. We are a providing a response on a region-wide basis and will continue to do that. There is no question of us extending self-accommodation to single persons.

Regarding HAP approval, I am clear about what the Deputy was saying. People get approval from their individual local authorities for homeless HAP. We do the administration involved in paying the deposits to the landlords. People would have to link in with Parkgate Hall regarding that. However, they do not have to go there, they could do that over the phone.