Mr. Andy O'Hara:

We are seeing more and more people come into emergency accommodation who never would have been in there heretofore. We are working with loads of young people. Most young people who take drugs will take drugs recreationally but they eventually will do a cost-benefit analysis, will never become drug dependent and move on with their lives. That happens when they get a home, a partner, have a family and get a job. It is different when those things become hard to get or young people cannot get them. Increasingly, we see people where their partner is having a baby and they have a job, she has a job but they cannot get a home so they end up in emergency accommodation, which means the father cannot see the children or new baby because they are being brought in. The longer those people are in that system then the more complex become their needs. These are people who would never have become drug dependent nor got involved in the criminal underworld but they are now getting involved. The social determinants and how we address the underlying issues are vital if we are going to have better outcomes for people.