Mr. David Kelly:

I thank the committee for inviting the Department to discuss its interim report on homelessness and the recommendations made in that report. I am accompanied by my colleagues, Rosemarie Tobin, principal officer with responsibility for the homelessness policy, funding and delivery unit; and Jennifer Peyton, assistant principal officer in that unit.

The Department works very closely with local authorities on the response to homelessness and I am pleased that our colleagues from the DRHE and Cork City Council are attending today. Eradicating homelessness is a priority for the Department. This year, funding of €242 million will be made available for the delivery of homeless services. This funding will ensure that local authorities can provide emergency accommodation, homelessness prevention and tenancy sustainment services, including Housing First, and other services to households experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness. A key focus is to ensure that households in emergency accommodation are supported to exit homelessness to tenancies as quickly as possible. The budget for homeless services will be kept under continual review in 2024 with a commitment to provide any necessary funding required.

Housing for All is the Government’s plan to meet the overall aim of ensuring everyone in the State has access to a home to purchase or rent at an affordable price, built to a high standard and in the right place, offering a high quality of life. The plan includes more than 200 actions across four pathways which collectively address housing issues. All those actions contribute to creating a housing system that meets the needs of our people. Under Housing for All, at least €4 billion in capital investment is available each year to support the delivery of housing, with more than €5 billion in capital investment available this year. The plan recognises that housing policy must address the needs of socially excluded members of society and that the issue of homelessness is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Many of the actions in Housing for All address issues raised by the committee in its 2021 report. The State made an overarching commitment at a European level by signing the Lisbon Declaration on Combatting Homelessness and has committed again in Housing for All to working towards ending homelessness by 2030. This will be done through a number of actions, including by increasing the overall supply of housing. The plan aims to deliver 300,000 homes by the end of 2030, including 90,000 social homes, 36,000 homes for affordable purchase and 18,000 cost-rental homes.

I will turn to the current homelessness situation. The most recent monthly and quarterly homeless reports produced by the Department show there was an increase in the numbers accessing emergency accommodation in January 2024 with a total of 13,531 individuals accessing such accommodation. While the numbers in emergency accommodation remain too high, the progress report for quarter 4 of 2023, which is based on data submitted by local authorities, shows progress in prevention of and exits from homelessness. In 2023, 2,815 adults exited emergency accommodation by way of a tenancy being created and 4,033 adults were prevented from entering emergency accommodation, a combined total of 6,848 adult exits and preventions. This is a yearly increase of 25% on 2022 figures. In particular, we can see that initiatives such as the tenant in situ scheme are increasing the number of preventions. The tenant in situ scheme provides for the acquisition of a property where a social housing tenant has received a notice of termination due to the landlord’s intention to sell the property. While the social housing statistics for 2023 are still being finalised, the Department understands that the target to acquire 1,500 properties in 2023 was exceeded. This scheme will continue in 2024 with provision to acquire an additional 1,500 properties. The prevention figures for quarter 4 of 2023 represent significant increases when compared to quarter 4 of 2022, with 91% more households, 100% more adults and 116% more families prevented from entering homelessness. In order to further increase exits from homelessness, in December last year the Minister wrote to all local authority chief executives regarding the need to reduce the numbers in emergency accommodation, placing a specific emphasis on translating the social housing delivery of 2023 into exits from homelessness. Based on the responses to this letter, local authorities are projecting a significant increase in exits compared to the same period 12 months ago. We are also driving better co-ordination of policy measures and actions and the national homeless action committee, NHAC, has been playing a key role in this regard. All Departments, Government agencies and other stakeholders, including NGOs, are represented on the NHAC. A key priority of the committee is to drive delivery of actions under the Housing for All plan.

I will now touch on a number of key policy developments under Housing for All, which are being overseen in co-operation with NHAC members and local authorities. Housing First has continued to build upon the progress already made in housing some of our most vulnerable individuals. The Housing First National Implementation Plan 2022-2026 outlines our target to provide more than 1,300 new supported social housing tenancies and build on successes under this programme. In 2023, an additional 320 tenancies were recorded nationwide. This brings the total to 560 under the current plan, which exceeds the two-year target of 551. Almost 1,000 individuals were in a Housing First tenancy nationwide at the end of 2023.

With the programme significantly expanding, additional governance and management arrangements have been put in place, including the establishment of a new directorate based in the Housing Agency. The youth homelessness strategy, which was launched in November 2022, is the first youth homelessness strategy in two decades and sets out 27 distinct actions aimed at preventing young people entering homelessness, improving the experiences of young people in emergency accommodation and assisting young people to exit homelessness. Implementation of the strategy is well under way and work has commenced on 25 of the 27 actions in the strategy. The strategy will be at its halfway point in May and it is intended to publish a progress report at that stage.