Mr. Sam McGuinness:

I will make some comments about the Simon Community and then speak about the Bill itself. I will also speak about housing and homelessness. The Simon Community in Ireland is made up of a network of eight regionally-based independent local communities in Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, Galway, the midlands, the mid-west, the north west and south east. All eight communities work collectively with our national policy office to conduct valuable research and inform and influence national policy.

Our main concern about the general scheme of the Bill is that some aspects may impede the Government's target of ending long-term homelessness by 2016. Every effort must be made to ensure evictions and exclusions for anti-social behaviour are the very last resort. People must not end up in emergency hostels and accommodation or sleeping rough and proper processes must be put in place.

The extension of the tenancy purchase scheme should not impact on the availability of social and affordable housing with almost 90,000 households on local authority waiting lists. The transfer of rent supplement to a housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme is very much welcomed but issues remain to be addressed, including maximum rent caps reflecting market prices, the acceptance of housing assistance payments by landlords and outstanding deposit guarantee issues. In addition there is a need for a national scheme similar to the rent supplement initiative within the HAP scheme. This would make provision to allow higher rent payments to be made under the HAP scheme nationally to secure accommodation for people who are homeless.

The present homelessness situation has been described as a tsunami and desperate. It is the worst most of us have seen during the duration of my career with the Simon Community. Last night 70 people were sleeping rough in the area between Harcourt Street, Amiens Street and Jervis Street. This is the highest number we have seen and it is at a time when the accommodation put in place for the cold weather initiative remains. Last night up to 1,600 people shared emergency accommodation in the greater Dublin area. As Focus Ireland well knows this includes many families. The number of families experiencing homelessness has increased.

Simon Communities are very supportive of the commitment to end long-term homelessness and the need to sleep rough by 2016 and the work of the homeless oversight group. We firmly believe with sufficient resources and national direction this can be achieved. The prolonged economic crisis means more people are at risk of homelessness. More people are becoming homeless and more people are turning to the Simon Communities for support. Last year we saw a large increase in the number of people we supported, as did other agencies. We are doing everything possible to address the crisis. We have increased our capacity and opened up new projects, sometimes with little or no funding from the Government and we had to rely on our own resources and donors. We are developing new ways of providing housing with support for those who are homeless, such as the Cork rentals initiative with Focus Ireland and other organisations. We are experimenting in a number of areas with shared accommodation. Dublin Simon has increased the number of new and refurbished units available, which we bought and revamped ourselves. Some of the revamps have been with the help of the State. We now have more than 70 units which is a huge opportunity for us.

We have housing shortages and rent increases and there is no end to it. It is a conundrum and a bubble which keeps getting bigger. People state it is exploding. This morning on the radio I heard a discussion during which the unemployment rate next year was projected to be 10%. If this is made up of people coming home to work in the construction industry we will have a real problem because the supply problem will increase.

The construction of private and social housing is urgently needed. This will require funding. Finance is required for approved housing bodies. Currently, only six housing bodies are approved by the Housing Finance Agency. There are many more such bodies in existence. NAMA must also deliver social housing. However, to my mind despite the requirement for NAMA to deliver as time goes by it has fewer units of accommodation available for various reasons.

As already suggested, the introduction of rent control in the private rental market is critical because rents are spiralling and will continue to increase because of demand and a shortage of housing. Transfer of voids to approved housing bodies and NGOs is critical. However, this, too, is not a bottomless pit. In addition, some of these voids may be beyond use at this stage. The establishment of a national social rental agency is a strong option, be that in the form of local authority groupings or otherwise. There is only so much rental accommodation available and there must be controls around it.

As already stated the promotion and funding of early intervention and prevention is critical. While the Minister of State has allocated additional funding for this purpose, unfortunately, that funding was taken from another space. The intention is to provide additional focus in this area. In terms of where urgent action is needed, we are expecting a miracle. We are expecting the big ticket item to come out of the homeless oversight group and the homeless policy implementation team. However, there has been similar expectation in the past. My hope is that this time we will get what we expect. Sustained funding from the Departments of the Environment, Community and Local Government and Social Protection and the HSE is critical for the next three years. Unless Government is imaginative in terms of the steps needed to get this country back on its feet and to achieve a reduction in unemployment we are heading into a crisis.

Members will note the many issues facing us which have been highlighted on the balloon I have drawn, including a housing shortage, housing quality issues owing to what is available, an increased risk of illness among long term homeless people, all of which is a draw on resources, a reduction in rent supplement despite that rents continue to increase, limited funding to assist those in mortgage arrears and increased unemployment. Many of the people who have returned to live with their mothers and fathers will in future need to rent accommodation. We are heading for a real problem and would like the assistance of the committee in solving it.