On Wednesday 9 December 2009, the Board of the Homeless Agency Partnership acknowledged significant advances in addressing homelessness in Dublin including:
· Decline of rough sleeping
· New model of homeless services being implemented
· Localisation of homeless services across city and county
A recent count on the number of people sleeping rough across the four local authority areas in Dublin confirms a continuing decline. The count takes place in spring and winter of each year, with 60 people confirmed to be sleeping rough on a specific night in November and 98 people in April of this year.
Cathal Morgan, Director of the Homeless Agency commented on this decline: ‘This is very encouraging for homeless services in Dublin and comes at a time where Minister Michael Finneran has confirmed that the funding allocation in 2010 for homeless services from his department is being kept at the same level as 2009. Considerable work still remains to be done, to ensure that each individual who is rough sleeping is supported into appropriate accommodation. As we work towards achieving our 2010 vision, we need to better understand the profile of people who remain to sleep rough, as there is an increase in the number of people from outside the EU sleeping rough and we need to ensure that their needs are met.’
He added: ‘ This decline in rough sleeping coincides with the intensive collaborative working that has taken place between all statutory and voluntary members of the Homeless Agency Partnership in identifying and securing long-term tenancies for people who currently reside in temporary forms of accommodation in homeless services. There is an increased focus both at a central government level and within all homeless services to deliver tenancies through the reconfiguration of existing transitional and long-term accommodation and social housing allocations. We are also bringing into use unoccupied new housing stock available through leasing arrangements under the Social Housing Investment Programme (SHIP) from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
On behalf of the four Dublin local authorities in collaboration with the Homeless Agency Partnership, the Dublin Simon Community were successful in the outcome of the tendering process for the delivery of the person centred housing support service under the new Support to Live Independently (SLI) scheme'.
Dick Brady, chair of the Board of the Homeless Agency and Director of Housing in Fingal County Council commented: Our commitment to localise homeless services across the Dublin region is serious. We will make certain that the local provision of supported accommodation and day services is working well and is flexible and responsive enough to ensure access for people who have complex and diverse needs. Our next steps are to establish a unitary outreach and contact team to cover the entire Dublin city and county area and we are confident that we can achieve this in 2010.
