Secure rental housing can shut door on homelessness

In the past few months we have been told that homelessness is out of control and that the Government’s approach is doomed to failure. Becoming homeless is a terrible experience for any person, and it can reasonably be called a crisis, but, in the wider picture, these dire warnings are at odds with the fact that Ireland has a relatively limited problem of homelessness and one of the most detailed strategies to end it in the EU.

While some of the commentary can be attributed to the tendency of some not-for–profit bodies to claim a crisis on a fairly predictable and annual basis – usually around budget time and Christmas, as a means of increasing donations from the public and maintaining their share of statutory funding – there is no doubt that an increase in the number of homeless families, particularly in Dublin, is evident.

On the other hand, the numbers in emergency accommodation have remained relatively stable over the past few months.

The vast majority of those who are homeless are accommodated in hostels and various private hotels and B&Bs. Approximately 2,700 homeless people were in emergency accommodation, of whom 1,200 were long-term homeless (in other words, homeless for more than six months); one-third were female and three-quarters were aged under 45. Fewer than 200 were sleeping rough.

In the first six months of 2014, nearly 800 homeless people left emergency accommodation by securing rental accommodation, demonstrating that the target of ending long-term homelessness by the end of 2016 is achievable.

In February 2013, the Government published a Homelessness Policy Statement that set out an ambitious agenda to end long-term homelessness and the need to sleep rough by the end of 2016. To achieve this objective, the statement noted that homeless services required a fundamental rebalancing, and instead of the provision of shelter and transitional accommodation, the rapid provision of appropriate accommodation, with support as needed to ensure sustainable tenancies, was key to ending homelessness. This shift in policy reflects findings from research on homelessness in North America and across the European Union.

Popular myths

For example, despite popular myths, research has consistently demonstrated that only a minority of those who become homeless in any year have a severe mental illness; the majority of those who do become homeless exit relatively quickly and do not return to homeless services; and shelters are costly and ineffective responses to housing scarcity.

Most significantly, studies of the provision of permanent supportive housing for homeless people, in countries as diverse as Denmark and Canada, have demonstrated that not only does the rapid provision of such housing work, in so far as those recipients are significantly less likely to return to homelessness than homeless people provided with traditional hostel and transitional-type services, it is also cost effective.

To ensure momentum on achieving this target, the minister at the time, Jan O’Sullivan, appointed an independent three-member homelessness oversight group. In its first report in December 2013, the group argued that the goals of ending long-term homelessness and the need to sleep rough by the end of 2016 was attainable, and could be realised within existing resources.

In February, a homelessness policy implementation team was established with representatives from all key statutory agencies. The group identified 80 actions that were required to attain the objectives of the homelessness policy statement and an implementation plan to address these constraints was approved by the Cabinet in May. Progress on achieving these objectives is monitored by the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy on a quarterly basis.

In comparative terms, this level of ambition and oversight in addressing homelessness is relatively rare. While an increasing number of EU member states have adopted strategic plans to end homelessness, few have developed national plans with such a level of detail supported by exchequer funding.

Statutory funding of homeless services has remained stable for a number of years, following cuts in the budget between 2009 and 2012, with the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government allocating €45 million a year, and local authorities contributing a further 10 per cent, in addition to significant allocations from the Heath Service Executive. This does not include any funding raised independently of the State by largely not-for-profit service providers.

Knowing better

The traditional Irish response to the homeless was to regard their homelessness as arising from sin, sickness or deviancy. However, we know better now. Homelessness is best understood as individuals or households lacking resources (in terms of income, family networks or both) to secure appropriate housing.

The supply of housing is crucial. The effective response is the provision of secure rental housing – whether in the private or social sectors. The debate to date has focused on increasing the supply of social rented housing via local authorities or approved housing bodies, the desirability of introducing some element of rent certainty in the private rented sector, and the need to increase the level of rent allowance paid by the Department of Social Protection.

All of these elements are important, but ultimately we need to have a system of secure occupancy in rental housing in Ireland. Unless this radical reform and reconceptualisation of rental housing occurs, the dynamics of homelessness will endlessly reflect the dynamics of supply, rent uncertainly and lack of security in rental housing.

Eoin O'Sullivan is professor of social policy at the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, and editor of the European Journal of Homelessness