Written answers

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

Homeless Persons Data

Photo of Robert DowdsRobert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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552. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of persons registered as homeless; and the number of persons sleeping rough. [8927/15]

Photo of Alan KellyAlan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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My Department's role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities.

Data on homeless households in emergency accommodation is provided through the Pathway Accommodation & Support System (PASS). Quarterly reports from lead housing authorities are being published on my Department's website as soon as these are available. In addition, lead housing authorities provide monthly reports on homelessness which identify the number of people utilising State-funded emergency accommodation on a regional and county basis. These monthly reports also provide details of the breakdown of the individuals and the numbers of families and dependents that are in emergency accommodation. Both the quarterly and monthly reports are available on my Department's website at the following link:

There is no official national data in relation to rough sleeping, however the issue is monitored closely by housing authorities countrywide but particularly in Dublin where a twice-yearly rough sleeper count is conducted through the Dublin Region Homeless Executive using a consistent enumeration methodology. The latest Dublin Region rough sleeper county was conducted on the night of the 11 November 2014 and recorded 168 individuals sleeping rough across the region. Following the subsequent introduction of an additional 271 emergency bed-spaces in the Dublin Region, arising from the special Summit on Homelessness which I hosted in December 2014, the level of rough sleeping dropped significantly with the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive estimating that there are between 15 and 25 persons rough sleeping in the city centre environs nightly and an additional 7 persons rough sleeping in the outer urban and suburban areas. The next official Dublin Region rough sleeper count will be conducted in April. The problem of rough sleeping is limited outside of Dublin, with housing authorities in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford reporting sufficient bed capacity on a nightly basis and that there is no one sleeping rough due to a lack of a bed.

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