Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent)
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42. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of persons in hotel and bed and breakfast emergency accommodation as of 20 May 2017; the number of persons that are in hotels; the number in bed and breakfast accommodation; and the locations in which these families will be housed on 1 July 2017. [24792/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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It is my intention that homeless families be transitioned from hotel arrangements as quickly as possible and to limit the extent to which hotel accommodation has to be used for new family presentations, and my Department continues to work closely with housing authorities to realise this objective. The use of hotels for emergency accommodation is a much more significant issue in the Dublin Region than in the rest of the country. At the end of March, a total of 870 homeless families were housed in commercial hotels and B&B’s in the Dublin Region. At end-April this figure has fallen to 695, of which 592 were in commercial hotels and 103 in bed and breakfast accommodation. Data for May is not yet available.

In order to meet the Rebuilding Ireland target that, by mid-2017, hotels will only be used in limited circumstances to provide emergency accommodation for homeless families, the accommodation needs of families currently in emergency accommodation in hotel and bed and breakfast accommodation are being addressed by the housing authorities through a mix of social housing solutions, such as tenancies under the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme and general social housing allocations. Housing authorities are also putting in place new supported emergency accommodation facilities which will provide homeless families with a greater level of stability, services and supports than are available in hotel and bed and breakfast accommodation, while move-on options to long-term independent living are identified and secured.

Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities. The detail arrangements regarding the locations in which families will be housed are a matter for the relevant housing authorities.