Ms Mary Hayes:

Part 1 of my submission was just some general context on the work of the DRHE so I will go straight to an update on the recommendations relevant to the DRHE. Recommendation 3 is on Housing First. The target of 273 tenancies for the Dublin region from 2018 to 2021 was met and exceeded. There were 414 tenancies created in the Dublin from 2018 to end October 2021. The DRHE is strongly supportive of Housing First. Recommendation 7 is for a methodology to be agrees for recording the deaths of people experiencing homelessness. The DRHE met the Department of Health and the HSE on this and it was agreed that the DRHE will cease reporting on deaths in homelessness and will co-operate fully with the Health Research Board’s, HRB’s, national pilot on mortality in homelessness. The HRB will be the first point of contact for future research in this area as it collects and analyses data from all coronial files. The pilot on national homeless deaths will inform the permanent structures for the recording and monitoring of trends. The HRB will provide the evidence on which State agencies can make recommendations on what can be termed as preventable deaths among people who were homeless at the time of death.

Recommendation 8 is on trauma-informed care. The HSE is supporting the DRHE with training of our staff and staff in the sector in the area of trauma-informed care, among other training inputs which we will come to. Recommendation 10 is on inspections. The DRHE placed a tender to source an independent inspectorate for all homeless accommodation facilities on the E-tenders website in June 2021. That process finished in December 2021, unsatisfactorily, as the tender process did not identify a suitable entity to undertake this role. The inspection tender was changed and reviewed and the new one has been advertised on the etenders website since Monday, 7 February. In advance of that tender development, the then deputy chief executive, Brendan Kenny, had instructed Dublin Fire Brigade, DFB, to begin inspections in all homeless facilities, including both NGO and private emergency accommodation, PEA, facilities. DFB risk-assessed all property files and identified 38 for physical inspection. All inspections and any consequential remediation works required have been completed. We had an in-house inspection team pre-Covid and we have resumed inspections for now until the tender process concludes.

Recommendation 11 is on the NQSF and its application to PEA. A process for the implementation of the NQSF to PEA has begun. As with the previous roll-out to NGO services, a developmental approach is being taken. The first phase is to introduce a framework of standards, focused on the quality of the accommodation and what the resident can expect from the facility and its staff. The standards for PEA were presented to the joint consultative forum in the Dublin region and to the management group in September 2021 and they were adopted. We are due to appoint a staff member this month who has previous NGO experience of rolling out quality standards. She will begin the process of rolling out the first developmental standards and will build up incrementally as we get the PEA operators used to the idea, trained in the idea and understanding of what the NQSF will involve. A tender is under development for the operation of DCC-owned or long-term leased buildings and we will be requesting tenders for the operation and management to include full facility and care and case management for those buildings.

We appointed a dedicated complaints officer as members will see in the report and I would like to give some context for this. In 2020 some 576 complaints were received by NGOs and 133 were received on PEAs. That is reflective of the fact that over a long period of time the NGOs have had well-developed complaints procedures and that we are just starting to promote PEA. I am confident that by the end of this year we will have a robust complaintsprocedure across all our services in a number of languages and that trust will be built in the service. A joint project with HSE Dublin north city and county social inclusion team and the DRHE has been established to develop the skills of emergency accommodation providers. Training is being rolled out in the following areas: first aid; naloxone and overdose awareness; suicide awareness and prevention; trauma-informed care; children first; safeguarding of vulnerable adults; intercultural diversity; and equality and diversity.

Recommendation 12 is on NGOs having the capacity to tender for the provision of emergency accommodation.

As of Monday, 17 January, the DRHE had put out a tender for emergency accommodation on the eTenders website. We have contacted all the NGO services to encourage participation in the request for tender. Since I came into the post in March last year, I have met with all the main homeless charities. I have actively encouraged and agreed we will support proposals for supported accommodation for families and singles experiencing homelessness.

Recommendation 13 relates to the phasing out of private emergency accommodation, which the DHRE fully supports. We support housing solutions to homelessness, in particular Housing First. It as much a priority for us as for anyone else.

Recommendation 14 refers to the Minister developing a plan for an adequate supply of emergency accommodation and to reverse the over-concentration in places such as Dublin Central. We have split our tender for accommodation into five lots. We have sought properties across the region and we are actively trying to encourage properties in a balanced development of homeless services across the Dublin region.

Recommendation 15 relates to the use of private security. It is used in very limited circumstances, usually where we have received complaints about congregation outside a facility, and is not involved in the management of the service. NGOs, private emergency operators and the DHRE in Parkgate Hall have private security to manage extreme episodes where there have been issues. It is not all the time and I regard its use as quite limited.

I will take recommendations 16 and 17 together because the latter is just an iteration of all the supports. On recommendation 16, since the Covid-19 pandemic, the DHRE and the HSE have been working extremely closely together. We already had an assigned key worker in place for all families. We are now working to extend that to single homeless people and those in PEA. Housing support officers, funded by the Department, are covering people who just have a housing need. The HSE has started funding in-reach services that are providing care and case management. We are building that up all the time.