Plans to outsource services for homeless ‘retrograde’

GOVERNMENT plans to tackle homelessness will place the most vulnerable at risk and should not go ahead in their current form, a leading homeless charity has claimed.

In a submission to the Department of Environment obtained by the Irish Examiner, independent homeless charity Trust says the Government’s plans to outsource support services for the homeless to voluntary bodies is a “retrograde” step – and suggests it may have been devised simply to save money.

In the document, addressed to Housing Minister Michael Finneran, director of Trust Alice Leahy says it is totally opposed to outsourcing services as it allows the State to abdicate its responsibility to vulnerable people.

Ms Leahy said the State should accept its responsibilities to people who are homeless and put the necessary services under the direct management of the department and through local authorities.

In the context of the abuse that went on in religious orders in the past, Trust questioned if a similar situation could arise by “subcontracting” services to the private or voluntary sector.

“It is our responsibility to point out that if the State cannot afford to meet the standards that are expected, voluntary bodies will not be able to do so either. When shortcuts are taken there will be a price to pay,” the submission states.

“Voluntary bodies, highly stretched financially, cannot succeed in replacing the State, especially when such initiatives may be undertaken to save money.”

Trust maintains that if the Government pushes ahead with its plans to outsource support services, it is imperative that independent advocates report to a monitoring committee to ensure standards and good practice.

Under the Government’s homeless strategy, a voluntary agency, the Homeless Agency Partnership, which comprises several voluntary organisations, will co-ordinate efforts to eliminate long-term homelessness in the Dublin area – along with the department and local authorities.

But a complaint made by Trust to the Data Protection Commissioner against the Homeless Agency reveals it has no legal status and therefore is not in a position to protect anyone.

More seriously, the submission claims, the agency has presented itself as an independent body when it is simply an arm of Dublin City Council.

“In other words, it cannot provide proper protection or properly advance the interest of people who are homeless the way it is constituted,” the submission says.

In the past, Trust has raised concern about what it deems invasive questionnaires which homeless people must fill out when accessing state services.

And now, the Data Protection Commissioner has said there clearly is doubt on whether personal data should be processed by the Homeless Agency as it is, in effect, a part of Dublin City Council.