Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, I thank the House for providing me with an opportunity to update Deputies on actions being taken to address homelessness in the immediate, short and longer term.

It is a very positive reflection on our society and political culture that this ongoing debate on homelessness is taking place. There are very few nations across the world that place such an emphasis on the plight of the homeless and fewer, even among our EU colleagues, that are so effective in implementing responses and bringing about solutions. The issue of homelessness is complex and about much more than just funding and money, as the Deputy pointed out. Statutory responsibility for the provision of accommodation for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities. The HSE also has a role to play in providing the health care and social supports required by homeless individuals.

I assure the Deputy of the commitment of my Government colleagues on the issue. There has been a focused and co-ordinated approach to tackling homelessness. In February 2013 the Government published its homelessness policy statement which outlined its aim to end long-term homelessness by the end of 2016. The statement emphasised a housing-led approach, which is about accessing permanent housing as the primary response to all forms of homelessness. Last May the Government considered and approved the implementation plan for the State's response to homelessness. This is a practically focused delivery plan which contains 80 actions which will contribute to the delivery of a ring-fenced supply of 2,700 units of accommodation by the end of 2016.

The long-term solution to homelessness is to increase the supply of homes. Last month the Minister launched the Government's social housing strategy 2020. This six year strategy sets out to provide 35,000 new social housing units at a cost of €3.8 billion and restores the State to a central role in the provision of social housing through a resumption of direct building on a significant scale by local authorities and approved housing bodies. The strategy is about providing housing for all social housing households, including homeless households, during the course of the six year period. Significant funding has also been made available to housing authorities to refurbish vacant units and this work will continue. This is a priority because it can provide much needed homes for homeless households. For example, there are 655 units in Dublin city that, with refurbishment, could be returned to productive use. Work has started on 245 of these and a further 410 will be completed in the next four to six months.

It is also essential to increase the volume of housing supply being made available to homeless households so as to meet the current urgent situation. Therefore, the Minister will be issuing a direction to the four Dublin housing authorities to allocate 50% of all housing allocations to homeless households and other vulnerable groups for the next six months, having regard to the time spent by these households on the homeless and other housing lists as at 1 December 2014. He will be considering a similar approach for other housing authorities across the country. He is also approving regulations to provide for the new housing assistance payment to be rolled out in the Dublin region on a pilot basis and which is specifically focused on homeless households. The pilot scheme will ensure homeless households in the Dublin region can access accommodation in the private housing market.

Earlier this month the Minister convened a special summit on homelessness to reaffirm the Government's commitment to end involuntary long-term homelessness by the end of 2016. The summit was attended by the Catholic and Church of Ireland Archbishops of Dublin, Deputies, elected members, officials and politicians from the Dublin local authorities, representatives of the NGO sector involved in the delivery of homeless services and officials from a range of Departments and State agencies. A number of actions arising from the summit were considered by the Cabinet sub-committee on social policy and public service reform at its meeting on 8 December and were then formalised in an action plan to address homelessness which was noted by the Government at its meeting on 9 December. The action plan which is available on the website of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government contains a number of actions which constitute an immediate response to the issue of rough sleeping in Dublin, as well as actions identified which tackle the more systemic issues, classified under the three categories of the housing-led approach.

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