Mr. Mike Allen:

I thank the Vice Chairman for the invitation from the committee to present these research reports. The main business is to hear from the researchers but I just want to make a couple of introductory remarks.

People will know Focus Ireland because of the work we do, namely, our services providing support to prevent homelessness or support people out of homelessness right across Ireland. Last year, we worked with more than 14,000 people, to prevent them from becoming homeless or sort them out, or provide them with housing - we are one of the largest approved housing bodies in the country. Right from the beginning, Focus Ireland has argued that we need to understand homelessness better. We cannot just assume we know what it is and what works to solve it. We have an ambitious research programme in recent years which shines a light on our own services to learn what works but also gives wider information to help public and policy understanding of what types of interventions work to end homelessness. That is very much the context in which these reports were commissioned.

At one level, the reports reflect areas of work which Focus Ireland is very proud of and successful in. Last year alone, we supported more than 700 families who were in homeless services into secure housing. That is the highest ever, and is probably the largest single contribution of any organisation to that goal of moving people out of homelessness, and similar effectiveness in terms of the prevention work which will emerge in the two pieces of research.

The main conclusions we would draw the committee's attention to are as follows. First, prevention works. It is meaningful and important to prevent people from becoming homeless and we should be doing much more of that. The sort of prevention work which people may be more familiar with is the advice and information. What comes from this piece of work is the role of case management in preventative work. Really intense human-to-human interaction is important.

It is also important to look at the way in which these services and the research reports were funded. More than half of Focus Ireland's funding comes from State contracts, but it is important to see in these pieces of work the role of corporate sponsors and partners. Bord Gáis Energy funded the prevention programme that is being looked at here and part-funded its evaluation while in the area of exits from homelessness, the main funder of services is the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive but also, particularly in the area of the child support work, Tusla and the HSE.

In the area of supporting families out of homelessness, we are saying prevention works even when there is huge pressure on housing. It is also possible to move families and individual households out of homelessness even when there is insufficient affordable housing. Obviously, the ultimate answer to the problem we are facing involves a significant increase in the amount of affordable secure housing that is available to everybody but there is meaningful work we can be doing in the right policy context, even in the current context.

Those are the main points that we are drawing to the committee's attention. We also circulated our research strategy to the committee to show the broad range of research interests that we have and we would be happy to discuss that further with any Deputy or Senator who wishes to ask.