Ahern urged to make homelessness a priority

It had some worthy objectives and recognised that homelessness is not just about

Instead, the strategy concluded that homelessness needs a comprehensive approach involving health, shelter, welfare and support as well as measures to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.

Last month, homeless people from Dublin were offered shelter in Belfast because there is nowhere for them to stay in the capital.

And the latest indications from the Simon Community's annual report released today are that the numbers of homeless people living on our streets is rising steadily.

Now adding to a deepening crisis, homeless agencies have begun to feel the squeeze as money they thought would be provided to fund their services is not forthcoming from the Government.

Through the Department of the Environment, the Government did raise its funding for the homeless sector by €7m this year to a total of €50m, but for the first time since the national strategy was launched agencies are

beginning to get less that they have budgeted for.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment said some agencies needed less this year, but denied the Government was cutting back funding.

But many agencies disagree.

Some such as Focus Ireland said they got 75% of what they require to maintain the level of services they provide.

Others like the Simon Community have challenged the Taoiseach to explain why their resettlement service, which they understood would be funded under the homelessness strategy, is receiving no capital funding.

Staff funding worth €230,000 was provided.

However, the cost of facilities including a new €1m resettlement centre due to open in Chapelizod in July, has been entirely funded privately by companies and individuals.

"We are building a state-of-the-art training centre to give people experiencing homelessness a real chance of getting a job. However, no capital funding is available from the Government for this project," said Simon Community chief executive Greg Maxwell.

Tabish Din, who runs Simon's resettlement services, said the Government's decision not to fund the service was difficult to understand given the capacity it had to take people off the streets permanently.

One individual who was homeless for more than 10 years has recently gone through the programme and now works and supports himself in his own flat, said Miss Din.

"The funding we get only pays for the staff which is so shortsighted given the importance of this service in terms of breaking down the cycle of homelessness.

"One person off the street for good makes such a huge difference and this is what we can do," she said.

But it appears there is still a long way to go before homelessness will be properly addressed and tackled by the authorities.

As Simon points out, the Homeless Agency, established to implement the Government's homeless strategy and action plan, was never put on a statutory footing.

The Government's action plan called for individual plans to be drawn up by each local authority and health board in conjunction with the voluntary bodies.

However, three local authorities have yet to draw up a plan to devise and oversee the delivery of services to homeless people.

Ireland opted out of Article 31 of the European Social Charter which affords the right to housing, and the Government has resisted calls for a referendum to include the right to housing in the Constitution.

In the meantime, all the indications are that homelessness is on the increase.

In Dublin, Simon Community outreach workers are this year encountering more than twice the number of new homeless cases they did last year.

Government figures show that 2,920 adults, 640 families and 1,140 dependent children are homeless in Dublin alone.

The latest national figures are not available since a Department of Environment study conducted 14 months ago has still not been released.

The previous head count, carried out in 1999, showed a national homeless figure of almost 5,500 double the 1996 figure.

Many organisations believe the actual figure has likely risen by at least a couple of thousand and cite this as the reason for the 14-month delay in the publication of the Government's figures.

Focus Ireland believes there are 6,000 homeless people in Dublin alone, and says this figure does not include the people forced to live with relatives or friends because they have nowhere else to go.

Yet Focus Ireland says it, along with other homeless agencies, did not receive enough money to continue its services this year.

The agency wants the Government to do a U-turn on its cuts in funding to voluntary homeless organisations, saying the cuts are having a detrimental impact on their ability to provide vital services to people who are homeless or at risk of living on the streets.

Chief executive Declan Jones said central state funding had been cut and as a result, Focus Ireland only received 75% of the total funding it applied for in 2003.

"The cutbacks in resources from the Government means we didn't get the level of funding we require for our services and housing this year," he said.

Simon Community chief executive Greg Maxwell warned that shortfalls in funding will not serve to break the cycle of homelessness and called on the Taoiseach to make homelessness a priority.

"With sufficient political priority the homelessness crisis could be reversed and thousands of people's lives dramatically improved.

"We have the solutions but we need the financial support that comes from true political commitment," he said.