Dublin homelessness level 'has stabilised'

The Homeless Agency said today the elimination of homelessness in Dublin by 2010 remains its "core priority" but its focus will now be on providing "housing solutions" rather than emergency accommodation.

The Agency, which was established as part of the Government strategy on homelessness, says its work over the last three years has helped "stabilise the levels of homelessness" and it now intends to focus on preventing the problem.

Launching the Agency's action plan for 2004-2006, the group's director Ms Mary Higgins said there was "no provision for more emergency accommodation in this plan."

"Instead," she said the plan would "focus on the provision of housing solutions and strategies to prevent people from becoming homeless".

Entitled Making it Homethe plan will seek to provide more housing instead of beds and develop strategies to prevent people from becoming homeless.

It also aims to improve the level of interventions where people do become homeless and to collate more accurate "information on homelessness and the impact of responses to it".

Ms Higgins said: "Homelessness is not inevitable. It is not a random process and there are clear links between poverty, exclusion, disabilities and eventual homelessness."

Eighty per cent of the State's homeless people are in Dublin. The vast majority are single and male.

Between 30 and 40 per cent suffer from mental health problems and a similar figure suffer from alcohol or drug dependence.

The Agency says there has been an increase by 1,000 in emergency beds available, including 100 for rough sleepers.

It also claims to have decreased the number of those sleeping rough in the city from almost 300 to under 100

Ms Higgins highlighted how the cycle of having people remain long term in temporary accommodation keeps people homeless.

She said: "They become excluded from mainstream society, dependent and institutionalised. Overall numbers of rough sleepers have been reduced under the last action plan and will continue to decline in the future.

"At the heart of this new action plan is the emphasis on increasing the provision of social housing through long-term investment and the short-term purchase or lease of suitable self-contained accommodation from private owners" she said.

The Homeless Agency is responsible for the management and coordination of services to people who are homeless in the Dublin area and for the implementation of agreed action plans which aim to eliminate homelessness in the capital by 2010.