Focus says Govt. is failing to tackle homelessness

national | public consultation / irish social forum | press release Wednesday July 23, 2003 11:53 by Focus Ireland - Focus Ireland rmcnamara at focusireland dot ie

Launch of Annual Report 2002

Launch of Focus Ireland Annual Report 2002
Release date: July 23 2003

FOCUS IRELAND CLAIMS THE GOVERNMENT STRATEGY TO TACKLE HOMELESSNESS IS FAILING AS IN THE STRATEGY’S FINAL YEAR THE CRISIS CONTINUES TO WORSEN
·Government has abandoned its own social housing targets
·Homelessness rising instead of falling despite Govt. promises

Launch of Focus Ireland Annual Report 2002
Release date: July 23 2003

FOCUS IRELAND CLAIMS THE GOVERNMENT STRATEGY TO TACKLE HOMELESSNESS IS FAILING AS IN THE STRATEGY’S FINAL YEAR THE CRISIS CONTINUES TO WORSEN
· Government has abandoned its own social housing targets
· Homelessness rising instead of falling despite Govt. promises

Focus Ireland claimed today that the Government strategy to tackle homelessness is failing as in the final year of a 3-year plan to tackle the problem the numbers of homeless continue to rise. (Latest Govt. figures show an increase from 5,234 in 1999 to 5,581 in 2002). Speaking at the launch of the Annual Report 2002 at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle, Focus Ireland Chief Executive Declan Jones said: “We’re in the final year of the strategy yet the numbers of people homeless is rising instead of falling as the Government had promised. The reality is people are spending longer than ever before homeless. The average length of time spent living in emergency B&B accommodation has shot up from only 20 days in 1993 to a current average of 18 months. These figures clearly show the strategy is failing.”

Meanwhile, also speaking at the launch Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy Life, President of Focus Ireland, blamed a lack of Government planning for the “chaos and misery” caused by homelessness and the housing crisis. Sr. Stan called for far greater commitment and significantly more resources to be put into a Social Housing programme. She said: "In spite of publicly-proclaimed funding problems, the resources must be made available to deal effectively with this national scandal.”

Focus Ireland maintains the current crisis which sees a record total of 48,000 households on the waiting lists and 6,000 people homeless is a direct result of a move away from social housing provision in conjunction with a lack of planning. Focus Ireland is calling upon the Government to take urgent action to meet its NAPS commitment to provide 41,500 local authority housing starts by 2006. Halfway through this timeframe and we are already nearly 10,000 units behind the mid-term target of 20,750 units. Focus Ireland believes the local authority housing budget has to be doubled from €695 Million to at least €1.4 Billion per year to ensure the 30,600 units required to meet this commitment are built between 2003-2006. Sr. Stan added: "Public or Council housing now known as Social Housing - is a critical and urgent necessity since 85% of these households have to live on less than €15,000 a year".

Focus Ireland maintains that another worrying development over the last 12 months has been the Government’s decision not to provide adequate funding to organisations - including our own - in order to tackle homelessness. Focus Ireland received only 75% of the total funding it applied for in 2003.


Mr. Jones said: “This means we don’t have the required funding for our services and housing this year and it will restrict the assistance we can provide to people most in need of our help” Focus Ireland has called for a Government U-turn and a full guarantee of adequate funding for voluntary organizations helping the most marginalized in society.


Focus Ireland also called for the government to “recognise housing is a basic social and human right.” Focus Ireland made a presentation yesterday to the all party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution which stressed the need to ensure a right to housing in Irish society is made a basic and human right. Ireland has responsibilities under international legalisation guaranteeing housing as a basic human right which we are failing to live up to. Mr. Jones commented: “If housing was a basic right in the Constitution the State would then have to guarantee a right to housing and it would be harder to avoid these international obligations - which in turn would help prevent the housing and homeless crisis from becoming even worse.”


Sr Stan also called on the government to return to the social and progressive housing policies of the last century which ensured that between ¼ and 1/3 of the total housing stock was public housing. She said: “This could be carried our by doubling Public Housing output each year for the next 10 years (2003 – 2013) from the 5,000 units achieved in 2002 and by putting in place the legislative framework, finance, land and other resources necessary to make this happen.”


During 2002 Focus Ireland developed and expanded its services in the following ways:

· Our Coffee shop and low cost restaurant extended to a 7-day service as a direct response to a growing need from our customers.

· The Extension day care centre in Dublin city for 18-25 year olds extended from a 5 to 7 day service. This service helped keep 200 vulnerable young people off the streets in 2002 by giving them somewhere to go during the day.


· The development of the family programme with the AIB sponsored Schoolmate programme which aims to help kids of homeless families stay in school through organizing transport to school and running after school clubs.


Some key facts about Focus Ireland:

· Our emergency, transitional and permanent housing developments provides a place to call home for 500 people in Waterford, Limerick and Dublin.

· Out street Outreach team met 897 individuals during 2002. (Half aged under 26)

· During 2002 Focus Ireland services helped 1,382 people aged between 12-25.

· Our coffee shop/low cost restaurant served 2,600 people in 2002.

· 90 young people between 16-18 stayed in our Off The Streets Hostel during 2002.

· A total of 14 young people who left care called Focus Ireland home in 2002.

· In 2002 we raised 2.75 Million in fundraising (Up 28% on the 2001 total with 26% from corporate donors and 37% from individual donations)


For further information contact: Roughan Mac Namara –
Focus Ireland


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