Levels of homelessness an outrage, says Simon

THE Simon Community yesterday called on the State to fulfil its own recommendations and pay for the housing and care of more than 5,000 homeless people nationwide.

Shelters all over the country are being forced to turn homeless people away because they do not have the room to cope with the escalating crisis, Simon Communities of Ireland director Conor Hickey said.

While Simon and other voluntary groups have done their best to care for the homeless, the problem will not be solved until the Government takes full statutory responsibility for funding the housing and care of the homeless, Mr Hickey said.

The Government's strategy published three years ago said responsibility for funding accommodation for the homeless rests with the local authorities and the health boards are responsible for care costs.

However, State agencies are not providing funding for the services because there is no statutory obligation to do so under Homelessness an Integrated Strategy 2000.

"The problem is the strategy is only aspirational and the State agencies are not mandated to provide the funds ," Mr Hickey said.

The strategy also promised there would be multi-annual funding for the homeless so that voluntary groups could plan three years ahead, but some Simon centres are still waiting for their health board money for 2002, he said.

It cost Simon 8m to run its services last year but the State only picked up the tab for half of this fundraising made up the rest.

The Simon director is amazed that public money is being spent on projects like the Dublin spike when housing health and education budgets are so tight. "Why is the country not outraged by the fact that we have well over 5,000 people homeless, 300 sleeping rough on Dublin's streets and 13 homeless people dead in Cork last year?" Mr Hickey asked.

The last official survey showed there were 5,000 homeless people here in 1999. But a new survey carried out in March has not yet been published by the Department of the Environment.

Mr Hickey, who is a past pupil of Belvedere College, said: "Our only Christmas message to the Government is put your own very good homeless strategy on a statutory basis otherwise the crisis will continue to worsen."

A Department of the Environment spokeswoman said there were no plans to make the Government's strategy statutory . However, she stressed funding for homeless services has increased from 12.6m in 1999 to €43m this year.