Speech by Brendan Howlin TD Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform at the launch of Simon Week 28th September 2015
I would like to thank the Simon Community for inviting me to launch your annual ‘Simon Week’ which has an extensive schedule of events in each of your eight locations around the country. Like most Irish people I admire and appreciate the work of the Simon Community.
For an organisation that was started by third level students, over 40 years ago, providing soup and sandwiches to people sleeping rough in Dublin it has grown into an established organisation throughout the country without losing touch with its roots. The significant role played by 2,500 or so volunteers and your daily contact with the most vulnerable in our society, providing food and support to those that are sleeping rough on our streets, is fair evidence that the ethos of the organisation is as strong as ever.
At the same time you are partnering with Government to support the provision of homeless services, which in monetary terms involves several million euro per annum [€5.3m in 2012], demonstrating the scale and professionalism of the organisation.
It is not acceptable to have people sleeping rough on our streets. Providing solutions to those that end up on the streets, is as you well know, a very complex challenge. The individuals often have a range of personal issues that no one remedy will address. While we rightly find this situation unacceptable there are few nations, even among our EU colleagues, that are as effective in implementing responses and bringing about solutions to homelessness. I would say we are fortunate to have effective active voluntary organisations working in this field.
There are obviously two homeless groups, the new and expanding group being those that are unable to meet rising rents in the current market. Sleeping on the streets is unacceptable and so also are the growing numbers in emergency accommodation. It is in everybody’s interest that the reliance on emergency accommodation be greatly reduced. Allowing homeless numbers to rise is not a cost saving exercise. Emergency accommodation is the most expensive and least satisfactory form of accommodation that receives state support. The state supports about a quarter of a million, or one in five, households through its various housing supports and is trying to retain those that qualify for housing support within the existing schemes.
It is a simple fact that there is a Housing supply issue at this time. The country is emerging from a deep recession with increased economic activity and a rising population adding to demand. Housing completions plummeted from the heights of the boom and are only slowly recovering. Bringing housing supply and demand into equilibrium is not something that can be done in a matter of months.
Housing projects have a minimum 18mth lead time. In the meantime demand is increasing and supply cannot keep pace in the short term. This imbalance is felt greatest at the margins and unfortunately at the moment by those that can least afford it.
The Government is responding with short term and longer term measures. The Social Housing Strategy, backed up by increased budgetary allocations for social housing, will provide 35,000 additional units over the six year period from 2015-2020 and support up to 75,000 households through the private rental sector mainly through the HAP and RAS schemes.
Short term measures have also been put in place to stem the increase in homelessness. These include prioritising newly available units for the homeless households and allowing flexibility above the rent supplement limits. 3,500 households are in receipt of additional rent supplement to prevent them from becoming homeless. These short term measures have not prevented the overall number of homeless households increasing significantly but in the absence of these measure the problem would be a multiple of what it is today.
The Government is actively looking at other short term measures to prevent further increase in the number of homeless households and to reverse the current upward trend. Your views will assist that process.
I can assure you that this is getting the highest Government priority. Additional funding of €10m, a total of €55.5m was provided to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in 2015. As stated earlier nobody wants to be spending extra on emergency responses as it is expensive, poor value for money and far from ideal for the families and individuals involved.
The aim is to divert this funding to longer term solutions. At the moment we are forced to have a twin track approach until the Social Housing Strategy delivers a greater number of units and housing supply in general increases.
The contribution from the Simon Community and other like organisations is key to serving the needs of the most vulnerable. Your work on the ground in delivering services to over 6,000 people per annum and your delivery of Government funded services makes you a key part of the delivery process but also positions you to contribute informed views into the policy development.
Today’s seminar has an impressive range of contributors and I look forward to seeing the report of proposed tangible solutions and actions. I am particularly interested in innovative solutions at this time and how we can achieve most, with the significant amount of money allocated, for those on the ground. I hope that you have a productive seminar and a successful Simon Week and that together we reverse the current trends which will allow a greater focus on those that need it most. ENDS//

