Upwards of 700 tenancies to be created for people who are experiencing long-term homelessness in Dublin
By 2010, long-term homelessness and the need for people to sleep rough will be eliminated in Dublin
The Homeless Agency Partnership (comprised of over 30 statutory and voluntary organisations who are addressing homelessness in Dublin) are implementing significant changes in how homeless services are configured in Dublin city and county, through the roll-out of a Pathway to Home, a new model of homeless, housing and support provision.
Commenting on the changes that will be taking place throughout 2010, Cathal Morgan, Director of the Homeless Agency Partnership said:
‘ Through extensive collaborative working between homeless service providers, statutory funders and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, we will be realising upwards of 700 tenancies from work that was initiated in 2009, for people who are currently residing in temporary forms of accommodation. These tenancies will be established through local authority social housing (including the use of unsold affordable housing), voluntary housing bodies, and the reconfiguration of existing transitional and long-term supported accommodation used for the purposes of homelessness. The tenancies have been identified and the four Dublin local authorities in collaboration with voluntary service providers are working out the administrative details in relation to the realisation of this target.
By end 2010, Dublin Local Authorities have set the aim of putting in place circa an additional 1200 units of long-term accommodation in addition to their ongoing allocation of social housing tenancies to homeless persons. In order to drive this initiative, the Dublin Local Authorities have established a regional housing procurement team that have the task of putting in place long-term accommodation via the Social Leasing Initiative. The key focus of this is to address the vision of eliminating long-term homelessness and the need to sleep rough by 2010.
He added:
‘All hostel type and one night stay accommodation – in addition to buildings assessed as not fit for purpose - will be taken out of the service delivery system in accordance with change reconfiguration requirements and as adequate housing capacity comes into being. It is extremely important to state that no service will be decommissioned unless there is an alternative in place for people who are accessing the service.
In the initial stages, a minimum of 200 units of Supported and Temporary Accommodation will be put in place and localised across Dublin city and county by end 2010. Supported Temporary Accommodation will mean that there are 24 hour care and support services for homeless people with complex and diverse needs (e.g. mental health, addiction, etc) in addition to a housing need. We will also be very careful to ensure we constantly monitor homeless presentation so that we can always be in the position of having adequate temporary accommodation as needs present.
As part of the implementation of a Pathway to Home, current homeless support services will undergo a number of key operational changes in terms of how homeless and housing support services are provided in Dublin, they include:
- Housing support services to be established across the four Dublin Local Authorities with a greater emphasis on preventing Homelessness occurring.
- Housing Support Scheme established by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government (entitled Support to Live Independently- or SLI), which will see the vast majority of current homeless households receive- as appropriate- a level of housing support to maintain their own tenancy.
- The establishment of a range of supported and temporary accommodation provided to cater for people with housing and care/ support needs.
- A Unitary Contact and Outreach Team, which will be specifically tasked with deploying assertive outreach programmes aimed at rough sleeping in Dublin city and county.
- Day Services will be reconfigured to offer programmes such as information and advice, key working, health, food and nutrition and homeless prevention.
- A 24 Hour Homeless Helpline and bed management system (under the aegis of the Dublin Local Authorities).
- The transfer of the assessment and placement function from the Homeless Persons Unit (currently operated on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities by the HSE Community Welfare Section) back to the local authorities.
- An enhanced role for Community Welfare Officers in the Homeless Persons Unit, to ensure linkages between the Health, Social Welfare and Local Authorities for homeless households and in terms of Prison In reach (This is subject to ongoing negotiation between the Health Service Executive, Department of Social and Family Affairs and the Dublin Local Authorities).
