'Chaotic' city services heavily criticised by Lord Mayor of Dublin

HOMELESSNESS SERVICES in the capital “are as chaotic as some of the people they are there to serve”, the Lord Mayor of Dublin has said.

Eibhlin Byrne said the Homelessness Agency should be abolished and emergency accommodation phased out.

She welcomed a series of reports published by the agency yesterday, saying they underlined the over-reliance on emergency beds and the lack of low-threshold accommodation.

She suspected far too much money was spent on staff and administration in homelessness services and they lacked focus.

“We have about 1,000 people employed in homelessness but 2,714 people in Dublin who are homeless. There are 20 different homeless service providers, at least. Out of the people employed in homelessness how many are in administration? How many are CEOs? Most of the services are delivering a bit of everything. What we need is more specialisation and focus, not everyone doing a bit of everything. In many ways the homelessness services are as chaotic as some of the people they are there to help.”

There was a “massive problem” with emergency beds. There were 1,352 emergency beds which had no ancillary services and cost the State €16.7 million a year.

Simultaneously there were 1,274 beds provided by the voluntary sector, with counselling and other services, which cost €21.2 million per year.

The voluntary beds, which had services to help move people out of homelessness, were “money much better spent”.

She said a homeless person could be in “emergency” accommodation for five years. “There is a big, big issue here of whether we are using the budget to the best value of people who are homeless.”

As a politician with a long-standing interest in homelessness she felt “frustrated” at the lack of input politicians had into the Homelessness Agency.

“There is no political linkage into it and there is no-one from it reporting into political structures.”