Target to end homelessness by 2016 will not be met, says charity

A Government target to end long term homelessness by 2016 will not be met, the head of homelessness charity Dublin Simon Community has said.

Speaking at the launch of the charity's annual review, Sam McGuinness of Dublin Simon Community said we are in a dire crisis and what the Government is doing to address it is "too slow, too little and too late".

“All I can see is action plans … but where is the delivery? I don’t see that,” he said.

Mr McGuinness said charities working in the homelessness sector are more frustrated than ever before.

He said numbers sleeping rough in the city had reached record highs, with one organisation recording 158 rough sleepers on one night last week. And the demand for sleeping bags was up 57 per cent on the same time last year.

“Hopefully the winter will be mild because if it isn’t, it will be dangerous,” Mr McGuinness warned.

Some 1,400 people, including between 200 and 300 children, “are forced to take shelter” in emergency accommodation in the Dublin region each night, half of whom have been in emergency accommodation longer than six months.

Mr McGuinness said in the last few years we were focussed on “the balance sheet”, but once there was a sign of economic recovery “that started a push on scarce accommodation”.

The 2014 target of 1,100 tenancies for Dublin had been reduced by 30 per cent because of the complete collapse in the private rented and social housing market.

“It’s the survival of the fittest; people on low incomes and rent supplements won’t make it,” he said.

“I can’t see how the Government can achieve their objectives by the end of 2016.”

He also said funding for homelessness should not be linked to the setting of the local property tax, which was a political issue; it should be operated from its own budget.

Also speaking at the launch of the charity's annual review, Lord Mayor Christy Burke said the Government needs to supply 100 per cent of the funding needed to tackle homelessness.

He defended a decision by councillors in Dublin City Council to reduce local property tax by 15 per cent having been told by officials the move would affect the homelessness budget.

“Stop trying to hold us to ransom,” he said.

He called for the introduction of rent controls and an increase in the rent allowance to meet that cap.

What was needed was “senior, senior” government personnel to come on board to tackle the crisis, he said.

“It is not impossible, it can be done if the will is there to do it, but the Taoiseach needs to intervene.”

He also said as Lord Mayor of Dublin he had requested a meeting with Minister of State for Housing Alan Kelly.

“I’m still waiting,” he said.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that a lot of public money was spent every year on dealing with homelessness and that the issue remained a priority for Government and a matter he wanted to see this dealt with.

“Nobody wants to see anybody lying in a doorway, on the street,” he said, speaking on a trip to the United Nations in New York.

He restated the Government’s policy to end homelessness by 2016 and said that the Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly was focused on this.

The Taoiseach noted that there were 1,800 units in Dublin being renovated and reconstructed.

The charity’s annual review for 2013 also highlighted a health survey of its clients which found once a person becomes homeless, the deterioration in their physical and mental health is “both rapid and debilitating”.

Some 62 per cent of those in the first six months of homelessness had a mental health diagnosis and this rose to 85 per cent among those homeless for more than five years.

The figures for physical conditions were 78 per cent and 92 per cent respectively.

Depression was the most diagnosed mental health condition with more than half of those surveyed reporting as having had suicidal thoughts.

Physical conditions reported included dental problems, Hepatitis C, asthma and foot conditions.

And 57 per cent of people had been diagnosed with both mental and physical conditions.

Last year, the charity provided services including housing, treatment, and personal development to more than 3,000 people in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare.