Written answers

Wednesday, 8 November 2006

Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government

Homeless Persons

9:00 pm

Photo of Ivor CallelyIvor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 326: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the estimated number of homeless people in the greater Dublin area; if his attention has been drawn to the more noticeable number of people that are sleeping rough; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36770/06]

Photo of Noel AhernNoel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Local authorities and the Health Service Executive are responsible for meeting the accommodation and health care needs of homeless persons. The Government's Integrated and Preventative Strategies on Homelessness provide the framework within which the agencies fulfil these responsibilities.

Significant progress has been made in the Dublin area over the last number of years in providing for and improving services to homeless persons. This has been facilitated in large part by the Homeless Agency, the partnership body responsible for the coordination of homeless services in Dublin. Rough sleepers have been enabled to access emergency accommodation and homeless persons have been facilitated to move out of emergency accommodation into accommodation more suitable to their needs.

Recent assessments indicate that there has been a welcome decrease in rough sleeping in Dublin over recent years. According to Counted In 2002, the assessment of homelessness in the Dublin area undertaken by the Homeless Agency in March 2002, 312 people self-reported that they had slept rough for four nights or more in the previous week. The number of persons self-reporting as having slept rough for four nights or more in the most recent assessment, Counted In 2005, undertaken by the Homeless Agency in March 2005, was 185 — a decrease of 40%.

In relation to the overall number of homeless persons in Dublin, Counted In 2005 recorded that the number of homeless households in the Dublin area was 1,361 comprising some 2,015 persons and this represented a 19% reduction in the number of homeless households since the 2002 assessment. This was comparable with the experience of the Homeless Persons Unit which saw a 20% decrease in the number of households presenting as homeless in the same period.

The Homeless Agency has as its overarching objective the elimination of long-term homelessness and the need to sleep rough in Dublin by 2010. The Agency is currently in the process of finalising its Dublin Action Plan for the period 2007 to 2010, which will set out the means by which it will achieve this objective.

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