Call to set new target date for ending long-term homelessness

CAMPAIGNERS have called for a new target date to be set to end long-term homelessness, after the Government failed to deliver on its aim of eradicating the problem by end of 2010.

Joyce Loughnan, chief executive of Focus Ireland, said there was an urgent need to deliver on the existing strategy, which she said took years to achieve. Delivery of homes is key to that process, but, as recent figures have shown, the Government’s target of 1,200 housing units in 2010 for people who have been homeless long-term has not been achieved.

Ms Loughnan said there was a need to agree a new deadline for the target of ending long-term homelessness in 2011, so the project did not lose momentum.

However, she said she was “disappointed” that the National Homeless Consultative Committee did not meet in December, even though the failure to meet the 2010 target — set more than three years ago — was obviously apparent.

She also said there needed to be clarity over the future reconfiguration of homeless services, a view echoed by Dublin Simon CEO Sam McGuinness. He has called for urgent action to prioritise homeless housing with the directors of housing in all Dublin and surrounding local authorities amid fears that the Pathways to Home model operated by the Homeless Agency could be bogged down due to lack of resources.

Director of the Homeless Agency Cathal Morgan said, regarding a target for 2011, there will be a need to “re-calibrate timelines”.

Resources are available to meet a fresh target, but people needed to remember Dublin did not have a huge amount of “ghost estates” and it was important to source the right housing for people coming out of long-term homelessness.

Regarding a head count, when 70 people were found to have been sleeping rough in November, the cold weather initiative had ensured places were available for anyone wishing to avail of them. He denied there had been a rise in women who are homeless and said women staying at Haven House (previously for women and children, but now open to men) had been accommodated elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Dublin City Council has revealed people in social housing have been evicted in 2010. New figures show 19 people were evicted, half for rent arrears. In one case there was an illegal occupier, with three evicted relating to estate management issues and five voluntary repossessions.

Another 22 eviction cases are pending. The local authority reported a rise in legal costs regarding eviction cases — up from €26,000 in 2009 to €40,000 in 2010.