Mr. Wayne Stanley:

I will give our opening statement and Ms Fitzgerald, who is very much on the front line of this, will engage with the committee's questions. First, I apologise. I am filling in for a colleague who had a bereavement and was not able to attend at the last minute. I have to step out at 2.30 p.m. and my colleague, Ms Fitzgerald, will stay. I hope the committee will not take offence to my leaving early.

The Simon Communities thank the committee for the opportunity to address it on this important issue and the important work of the committee. As the committee will be aware, we are a network of independent communities across the country that provide homeless, housing and treatment services to people facing the trauma and stress of homelessness. In 2019, the Simon Communities in Ireland supported more than 18,000 men, women and children at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

The front-line experience of the Simon Communities tells us that members of the Travelling community are much more likely to experience homelessness. Irish Travellers make up less than 1% of the population but national figures show that members of the Travelling community are significantly over-represented among those of our community who experience homelessness. Our front-line experience shows us that there are clear structural reasons for this and we wish to take the time with our opening statement to outline these briefly to the committee.

I will start by acknowledging that, as the committee will be aware, we are in the midst of a homelessness and housing crisis. With two critically important exceptions, the structural causes of housing exclusion and homelessness that we see driving up numbers of families and individuals in homelessness are just as acute for members of the Travelling community as they are for the rest of Irish society. The two exceptions are the lack of culturally appropriate accommodation options and the levels of discrimination that are a particular experience of members of the Travelling community.

The impact of discrimination we see in our work is twofold. First, a landlord's realisation that a household is from the Traveller community can see it being refused or overlooked for accommodation. Second, an awareness of this discrimination can have a debilitating impact on the confidence of a household to engage with the private rental market, undermining its potential to secure accommodation.

As members will be aware, the primary route out of homelessness, and the primary location of homes into which households can be diverted to prevent homelessness, is in the private rental market. Ireland is currently in the grip of a housing crisis that is playing out significantly in the private rental market. There is an acute lack of affordable accommodation, and the rates being charged to tenants are largely beyond what is affordable under the housing assistance payment, HAP, even with the increased discretion available to local authorities for households at risk of homelessness. This, combined with the discrimination already mentioned and issues such as larger family size, makes the private rental market often an unsuitable or unattainable accommodation option for many in the Traveller community.

While many members of the Travelling community who experience homelessness are searching for a home in the private rental market or seeking social housing, a number of households, in our experience, wish to avail of accommodation that would allow them to continue to live within the traditional structures of their community. The absence of these options serves to increase homelessness, overcrowding and structural homelessness.

The census data tell us that, on average, Traveller households are larger than households in the State overall. This can make finding appropriate accommodation in the private rental market difficult, as I have said, and limit the availability of social housing. In general, local authorities will not accommodate a larger family in a smaller unit as the family would immediately have to be transferred to a priority list as an overcrowded household. Addressing this issue requires that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage amend the social housing net income limits or the incomes considered in the regulations to take account of larger family sizes. This is an additional point.

In extreme cases, particularly in band 3 local authority areas, we are seeing large families excluded from the social housing lists because of the way household income is counted. When family members are recipients of social income, the household income is often in excess of the bands and this excludes the family from access to social housing supports, including HAP payments, which makes homelessness almost inevitable.

Overcrowding has been shown to be a driver of increased homelessness, and that is throughout society. Often, it is driven by a household being unable to secure alternative private rental accommodation and another family taking them in. With single people we refer to this as couch-surfing. While these arrangements can work in the short and medium term, they are not sustainable long-term.

The Simon Communities provide supports to members of the Traveller community, as we do all those experiencing homelessness. We are conscious that we are not representatives or spokespersons for the Traveller community. What we have set out are the structural impediments that through our work we see contributing to homelessness and longer periods in homelessness for members of the Traveller community that we support.

I refer to an important point made earlier by Mr. Dill. When we talk about culturally appropriate accommodation, our understanding of that is what members of the Traveller community with whom we work tell us they need. We do not set any terms or definition of "culturally appropriate housing". It was interesting that Mr. Dill said that discussion is ongoing. That is worthy of consideration.

Some of the issues raised require structural change, but it is clear that as a society we have to work to address the discrimination experienced by members of the Traveller community. We would also note that all public bodies in Ireland have a responsibility to promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the human rights of their employees, customers, service users and everyone affected by their policies and plans. This is a legal obligation, known as the public sector equality and human rights duty, which originated in section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014. Some local authorities are progressing this and doing a lot of work in this area. This duty sets a framework and foundation from which to build.

On the Traveller accommodation programmes, TAPs, we have to acknowledge that many local authorities recognise the discrimination that Traveller households suffer and they do allocate public housing. It is clear that much more work will have to be undertaken to ensure the increased provision of culturally appropriate accommodation for members of the Traveller community throughout the State. In the first instance, the targets set out in the TAPs have to be met. There should also be a review of accommodation needs targets and appropriateness of the accommodation options being offered to ensure the needs of the Traveller community are being met.

On discretion with regard to the HAP, we have to ensure those at risk of or experiencing homelessness are not evicted or cannot secure a home due to insufficient income to meet their housing cost. The Government commitment in Housing for All to review the discretion available to local authorities on the rates of HAP should be expedited. Outside of Dublin, but also in the Dublin region, allowing for the discretion available to local authorities, they are not able to meet market rents. While we understand and agree that local authorities and, indeed, Government policy should not chase an unaffordable private rental market, this cannot be done on the backs of the most vulnerable. We have to ensure there are mechanisms in place such that people can exit homelessness or can be prevented from entering it.

I thank the joint committee for the opportunity to engage. We welcome any questions.