More families exiting HAP through council transfers

Mercy Law Resource Centre (MLRC) has called for urgent reforms to better protect the homeless, especially ethnic minority families who are sleeping with their children in public parks.

Launching its Annual Report 2019, the charity says reform must place a statutory obligation on local authorities to consider the best interests of children in any homeless assessment.

The charity wants a legislative amendment or regulation under section 10 of the Housing Act 1988 to set an upper time limit, as exists in England and Scotland, on the length of time homeless families and vulnerable people can be placed in hotels and B&Bs.

Duty

MLRC says urgent policy and legal reform is needed to properly protect homeless families, so that there is a duty, and not just a discretion, on local authorities to accommodate homeless people.

Vulnerable families are being left to sleep rough in the Dublin area, during the ongoing pandemic, MLRC says.

It also says families from ethnic minorities, with limited resources, are being refused emergency accommodation. A small number of families are currently sleeping in parks with young children.

Ethnic minorities

The charity says it has “intervened positively” in these cases but remains concerned about the lawfulness and transparency of the homeless assessments in relation to families from certain ethnic minorities.

The charity says that it is entirely unacceptable for children to be sleeping in parks and calls on local authorities to undertake homeless assessments in line with the statutory framework.

Failure to address these urgent issues will have an extremely detrimental impact on the health and well-being of vulnerable families and children, the charity believes.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien launched the annual report online this morning.

He said that increasing the supply of social housing is one of the key challenges in response to the major societal problem of homelessness.

“Under the PfG I am committed to delivering over 50,000 new social homes within that period.”

Cap

He said that he has raised the discretionary cap for local authorities to build more homes, to €6m, to deliver a quicker supply of public housing.

He said that through the Housing Agency, each local authority has been asked to acquire homes focused on singles and families, because 70% of homeless adults are single.

O'Brien said new developments must be designed with a mix of one- and two-bed units as well as larger family homes, and he has already made this a ministerial direction.

A total of 11,000 permanent homes will be delivered this year, through build, acquisition and leasing, the minister said.

Housing Assistance Payment should be seen as a temporary measure and local authorities should use the transfer list more effectively, he said.

Blockage

“More people are exiting HAP into permanent housing through our transfer lists, and that has been a big blockage for many families,” he said.

Affordable housing both for purchase and rental has an effect on the overall market, he said.

“I believe in public housing and public land,” the minister continued, and said that he will be pushing to increase the public housing budget from €2.63 billion this year.

The minister continued that fifty to sixty families have been homeless for three to four years, because of the difficulty meeting the housing need for larger family homes.

The MLRC annual report shows that:

• MLRC assisted 1,611 individuals and families in 2019 – 88% of these cases related to homelessness,
• MLRC assisted 489 homeless families in 2019 – nearly one third of the total number (1,548) of families registered as homeless in December 2019.

The charity says that while the PfG commitment to tackling homelessness is welcome, action is needed on the recommendations of Oireachtas Committee report on family and child homelessness, published in December 2019.

Vulnerable

Managing solicitor, Rebecca Keatinge, said this morning: “MLRC has continued to support acutely vulnerable families and individuals many of whom have been failed by homeless services.

“In 2019, we saw another increase in recourse to our service by homeless families, many of whom came to us as a last resort when other advocacy routes failed.

“We advised 489 homeless families during the course of 2019, up from 452 assisted the previous year.

“These families spent long periods in commercial hotels and B&Bs, some upwards of two years. They faced intolerable conditions: cramped and unsuitable hotel rooms for months on end, cut off from family, community and school supports.”

Quick response

MLRC welcomed the quick response of local authorities in March 2020 in the early days of the pandemic when a number of homeless families supported by MLRC were swiftly moved out of overcrowded B&Bs to more suitable emergency accommodation.

It also says there has been concerted and ongoing efforts of local authorities more generally to move families out of unsuitable ‘self-accommodation’ in B&B and hotels.