Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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During the mid 1990s Dundee City Council experienced problems with nuisance neighbours and anti-social behaviour. The policy of eviction was deemed unworkable as it became clear that this approach was not solving the problem. In cases that resulted in an eviction, little was done to tackle the causes of the problem. Accommodation was not available to those who had been evicted from council properties and many families ended up in bed and breakfast accommodation, temporary housing or living with relatives. The problem was displaced rather than addressed.

In an attempt to tackle the underlying problems of nuisance neighbours and to seek long-term solutions, Dundee City Council asked the children's charity NCH to manage and develop a project. In 1996, it established the Dundee Families Project. This offered a wide range of support services to the homeless or those facing eviction as a result of anti-social behaviour. Between 1996 and 2000, 126 families were referred to the project.

The aim of the Dundee Families Project is to work with those families facing eviction and to restore families to satisfactory tenancy arrangements through appropriate and intensive support. The project offers a wide range of services for families including parenting skills, anger management courses, cookery classes, domestic budgeting and acts as a link to other services such as drug treatment and health services. Many of the families referred to this project have a history of anti-social behaviour, such as noise pollution, violence, damage to property, drug dealing, fire raising and running a protection racket while other referrals are related to family relationship problems.

The project offers three main support services to families. Outreach work and early intervention is undertaken to avoid evictions. Project staff work with families either at their home or at the project centre to address the cause of anti-social behaviour. Residential core accommodation is aimed at meeting the needs of those facing eviction. The project can provide for three families to reside at a residential unit and they are offered intensive support on a 24 hour basis. Alcohol and drug counselling is arranged for those who would benefit from it. Most families using this service stay in the residential unit for approximately nine months. The project also has 12 flats throughout Dundee offering reduced family support. Many families who have used residential core accommodation move into these flats. Once they have been shown that they can successfully live in the community, the tenancy of the accommodation is transferred to them.

There has been a marked reduction in anti-social behaviour and evictions in Dundee. Half of the referrals came from housing and social services and approximately two thirds of the cases were considered successful and these families were rehoused. One fifth of cases did not meet the expected targets and one tenth of families refused to engage with the project.

Many of the families who used the Dundee project are considered vulnerable. Research undertaken by the University of Glasgow in 2002 evaluating the project revealed that families involved had a long history of anti-social behaviour. Approximately two thirds of households had a one parent family structure and the average family size was 3.4 children. Nearly all families were poor and reliant on state benefits. Drug or alcohol problems affected 70% of adults, 50% of whom had criminal records. There was evidence of neglect affecting almost half the children and more than half of the women had experienced domestic violence.

It is widely believed that schemes like the Dundee Families Project are costly. This project, however, has been evaluated as cost effective. An assessment by the University of Glasgow estimated that it saved £117,600 per year for Dundee City Council. The council made savings as a result of the decrease in tenant evictions and because fewer children needed to be taken into care.

Evicting families from their homes does little to address the root causes of anti-social behaviour. The Dundee project offers an innovative, effective approach that reduces anti-social behaviour through tailored support and assistance. Evidence from the project found that many families causing anti-social behaviour had problems with alcohol or drug abuse and that children and women had experienced domestic violence. This further emphasises the need to ensure that adequate help and treatment is available to address these problems. The Dundee Families Project has proved successful in reducing anti-social behaviour and giving vulnerable families the necessary advice and support they need.

The local authority in Aberdeen has embraced this project, as have local authorities in Manchester on a pilot basis. To consider its potential in Ireland, we would have to establish it on a pilot basis but, at a minimum, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government should examine in depth the lessons to be gleaned from the Dundee experience and see if they could be applied in Ireland.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and giving me an opportunity to address the question of anti-social behaviour in the context of the management of local authority housing.

Local authorities are responsible under the Housing Acts for the management and maintenance of their housing stock, including addressing any problems arising on their housing estates from serious anti-social behaviour. In recent years a number of measures have been put in place to ensure that local authorities have sufficient capacity to fulfil these responsibilities. New legislative provisions have been enacted, including the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 and the recently enacted Residential Tenancies Act 2004. These Acts provide local authorities with specific powers to deal with anti-social behaviour within local authority, voluntary and private estates.

Outside of the legislation, various other initiatives have also been taken to promote improved estate management. These include the housing management grants scheme, the promotion of best practice in housing management in line with the recommendations of the housing management group, a programme of tenant training and development, and the estate improvement programme to assist in tackling environmental and related problems in severely run-down local authority housing estates and flat complexes in certain disadvantaged urban areas. The housing management initiatives grants scheme established in the mid 1990s, assists local authorities and voluntary organisations to undertake practical pilot projects to improve their housing management. To date, funding of almost €6 million has been provided in grants to improve management of the public and social housing sector. Under the scheme the Department has grant-aided many initiatives including staff and tenant training in estate management, the recruitment of tenant liaison officers and other estate-based staff.

A further initiative to support local authorities to improve housing management was the launch of the housing unit. Its purpose is to assist local authorities to develop a more effective operational approach to housing management. The unit has produced guidance for local authorities in preventing and combating anti-social behaviour and organising training courses.

The Dundee families project was introduced in 1997 and is an interesting initiative. It has directly addressed the destructive behaviour of families at risk or under threat of eviction with the aim of trying to change their behaviour. More than 80 families have been helped in a joint project including a voluntary group and the local authority. While the precise form of this project may fall outside of the scope of the existing housing support schemes for which the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is responsible, I will continue to encourage the active co-operation between local authorities and the voluntary sector. I will follow the progress of the Dundee project to see what lessons relevant to our circumstances can be learned. While it may not be appropriate to our schemes, I am sure some aspects of it can be examined. I will undertake to have the matter examined in more detail. I thank Deputy Kirk for bringing the Dundee project to my attention.