Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand that there are about 850 families in hotel accommodation today. I stand to be corrected on that, but it is not a million miles away from the exact figure. It might be slightly higher or slightly lower. The intention is to ensure that as many of those families as possible are in long-term housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancies or in social housing. I will not give absolutes because different families need different things. The whole point is that when a family or an individual is made homeless, the State looks after that person or people for a temporary period, as it should be, until we can find suitable accommodation which is supported appropriately for them. That could be Housing First, families in hotels who should not be there, or individuals who need support for mental health concerns, addiction or whatever it is. We have put significant increased resources into improving emergency facilities.

All the talk on homelessness is focused primarily on emergency facilities, numbers and so on as opposed to ensuring that we get families and individuals into appropriate medium and long-term housing. That is what we will try to do with the 750 and the others who will unfortunately be coming into homelessness between now and the middle of the year. There will be an element of these transition hubs being part of the solution as well as social housing, homeless HAP and HAP. The combination of all of those can deliver much better results for families and support for them than we have today.

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