Mr. Seán Ó Siochrú:

This particular work was done by Neil Haran and myself. Its defining feature is that it looks at those who were at risk of homelessness and managed to avoid it. The main reasons for that risk fall into two primary categories. The first is notice to quit, of which landlords selling property accounted for 40%.

Family members moving in accounted for nearly half of all notices to quit. Then there were those who could not pay their rent, either because of arrears or rent increases. Some 14% of people had to move out because of direct rent increases. Overall, approximately 80% had experienced notices to quit or simply could not pay for where they were living, which does not come as a surprise but does say a lot.

A number of Focus Ireland's strategies worked and helped people to avoid homelessness. First was building families' awareness of their rights and entitlements and providing clear directions to them. Understandably, most did not know what these were. Many had never experienced anything like this before. A second strategy was assisting families to navigate the State systems, which enabled them to access their rights and entitlements by going to meetings, advocating with the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, writing letters to State agencies, etc. A third strategy was coaching families on how to find properties. Many needed this help, particularly because they were in vulnerable situations dealing with agents and landlords and overcoming or getting around the latter's prejudices. A fourth strategy was supporting families to access financial assistance when they found somewhere. In particular, the housing assistance payment, HAP, was just coming into being and was a major factor for families, but many landlords did not want to engage with it at that point. A fifth strategy was bringing prevention services together in an integrated package and adding to them the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, counselling and other services that were available.

It was this combination of supports that worked, and we know that it worked because, between three and 15 months afterwards, 34 of the 35 families interviewed had succeeded in avoiding homelessness. They told us which supports had worked and how they had worked. That is our evidence. It is not just a question of what worked, but also how - the "how" of prevention - it worked when dealing with each family's complex circumstances.

Any family from any background, economic status, ethnicity or culture can be at risk of homelessness. When approaching services and others, prejudice can put families that are already under stress under even greater stress and reduce their resilience and motivation. Being non-judgmental does the opposite and builds their motivation. The case management approach is effective. Families need personalised, timely, flexible and hands-on support. They also require integrated and varied packages of support that are tailored to their needs.

Regarding short-term versus medium-term solutions, prevention services can only hope to achieve short-term solutions. We can see that with many people returning to homelessness after a period of being able to avoid it. While these solutions support families in crisis, they cannot address the structural causes. Alongside the evidence, the interviewees propose that long-term and medium-term solutions involve an effective implementation of HAP - they did not find it effective at that time, although matters have improved - improved regulation of the private rental sector and an increased supply of social housing. These are the interviewees' own views. They are quite well informed about what needs to be done after their experiences with Focus Ireland.