Call for long-term solution to homelessness

The Government and local authorities must provide more long-term solutions to housing for the homeless, the Simon Community claimed today.

With emergency provisions almost three times as expensive as permanent accommodation, a report from the charity stated a new strategy was needed to ease the crisis.

The report noted the approximate cost of keeping someone in emergency housing for one year was €30,000, compared to €12,000 to stay in private sector housing.

Conor Hickey, Simon Communities of Ireland director, said the Government needed to update the 1988 Housing Act by ending the reliance on emergency services.

“Simon believe that housing rights should be made real through a client-centred, transparent and accessible housing system,” he said.

“One implication of this research is that we may need new law before our clients can realise their rights to appropriate housing. Homelessness can be ended with a commitment to providing people with appropriate housing.”

The report stated that there was no agreement on the definition of homelessness across many service providers and support groups. Some local authorities do not include those who have been evicted, those not from the locality or those they consider to be intentionally homeless.

Emmet Bergin, a researcher who helped compile the report, said discussions with the Government, local authorities, Health Service Executive, voluntary groups and homeless people showed that long-term accommodation was the only way forward.

“There was agreement among these agencies that without long-term stable housing, virtually no supportive interventions work for people who are homeless,” Mr Bergin said.

The report, funded by the Simon Communities of Ireland and the Combat Poverty Agency, stated that most local authorities believed that their homeless count was not an accurate reflection of the extent of need.

Being counted as homeless does not guarantee an actual housing needs assessment, the report showed.

The Simon Community said this situation, combined with the lack of data recorded by local authorities, meant it was impossible to fully assess what housing was allocated to people who are homeless.

The report said that of all those officially counted as homeless in 2002, only 10% were housed by the local authorities. Single people accounted for 68% of the current homeless list, but only 43% of the allocations.

The Simon Community issued a series of recommendations for Government and Local Authorities including:

:: Department of the Environment and the Health Services Executive should agree a definitive interpretation of the definition of homelessness, setting out the services people should be entitled to receive;

:: Re-designation of emergency accommodation where people are not being appropriately re-housed;

:: Ending of rent restrictions to those who refuse offers of local authority accommodation;

:: Developing housing that reflects the profile of the homeless population, offering early and in-depth housing needs assessment to people who are homeless.