Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 3 October 2024

Committee on Drugs Use

A Health-Led Approach: Discussion (Resumed)

9:30 am

Mr. Geoffrey Corcoran:

A separate but related issue is we know how many young people will leave care or prison every year and need housing. Plans should be put in place. Sometimes it is a transitional housing model, sometimes it is a Housing First model and sometimes it is independent and supported accommodation. There are steps we can take to prepare. If 70% of people in prison have addiction, we know people will come out and need these supports in communities and that communities will need support. There is plenty that can be done and planned. Statistics from a county in the midlands show it built four units last year. Apparently it overshot its social housing targets by approximately 100% but, of that, there were four single units built. Are we building the right types of housing? If everything being built down the country is three-bed houses, that will not meet the needs of the people we are talking about.

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