Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 375: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the numbers of persons known to be homeless in the Dublin area in the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011; and his proposals to address the issue of homelessness. [30344/12]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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A statutory assessment of housing need is carried out every three years by all housing authorities. The Housing Agency's Housing Needs Assessment 2008 and 2011 reports break down the categories of housing need, including in respect of homelessness, for all 88 housing authorities nationwide. These are available on my Department's website at www.environ.ie. However, as the Housing Needs Assessment only counts homeless persons where an application has been made to a housing authority, it was decided in September 2011 that details on the extent of homelessness in the Dublin region, where numbers are most pronounced, would be reviewed and updated using the now fully operational Pathway Accommodation & Support System (PASS) and crosschecked against each of the Dublin local authorities housing management data systems to give an accurate figure of the known homeless population in Dublin. Following extensive cross checking and quality control to remove duplications and ensure accuracy of all data entries the confirmed extent of homelessness in the Dublin region as at September 2011 was 1,891 persons. PASS, which commenced operation in the Dublin region in 2011, is being extended nationally on a phased basis with work currently underway in other regions. It is intended that the PASS system will be operational across the entire country by end 2012. The PASS system will in future provide good quality, timely, data on homelessness nationally as an evidence base for all homelessness services.

The current homeless strategy The Way Home - A Strategy to Address Adult Homelessness 2008-2013 sets out Government policy on tackling homelessness and has a number of key aims including:

· preventing homelessness;

· eliminating the need to sleep rough;

· eliminating long-term occupation of emergency accommodation;

· providing long-term accommodation solutions;

· ensuring effective services; and

· better co-ordinated funding arrangements.

The Programme for Government committed to reviewing the national homelessness strategy and to implementing a housing led approach to homelessness. The draft of the review is being considered by my Department and was presented recently to the Cross Departmental Team on Homelessness and the Homeless Consultative Committee for consultation. The review will take account of demands on existing housing and will assess how best to continue providing services in a manner consistent with the elimination of existing homelessness and to ensure more effective prevention strategies. On its conclusion, I will be indicating what I expect from housing authorities and other stakeholders in accelerating progress towards realising the ambition of eliminating involuntary long-term homelessness.

There is no single solution to increasing the level of social housing supply for the homeless, and maximising delivery will require flexible and diverse approaches. The initial emphasis is necessarily on the Dublin region, where there is a concentration of those accessing homelessness services, by moving away from the current over reliance on emergency accommodation provision to a more permanent accommodation solution to be achieved through a number of measures including:

- directly linking the provision of funding with specific targets and outcomes;

- making better use of the existing available accommodation units in the local authorities and in the voluntary sector;

- additional social housing provision through acquisitions and remedial works/upgrading of vacant local authority housing stock and a leasing programme;

- ongoing engagement with NAMA to secure properties;

- targeted use of the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS);

- an enhanced role for the private rental sector;

- better co-ordination with the voluntary and cooperative housing sector; and

- the establishment of Homeless Action Teams across all regions.