Homeless Services Funding Freeze

On Wednesday, February 27th, news broke of the Health Services Executive’s decision to freeze funding for homeless services. This move makes an absolute mockery of government policy and the official target to eliminate homelessness by 2010. Organisations working with people who are homeless have already begun to feel the pinch of what is effectively a cutback.

On Wednesday, February 27th, news broke of the Health Services Executive’s decision to freeze funding for homeless services. This move makes an absolute mockery of government policy and the official target to eliminate homelessness by 2010. Organisations working with people who are homeless have already begun to feel the pinch of what is effectively a cutback.

Dublin Simon Community estimates that when inflation is taken into account, this means a 3% decrease in funding. They have had requests denied for 12 new projects in the area of Detox services, Supported housing and Emergency Shelter accommodation. The DePaul Trust has already completed the building of a new project on James’s St in Dublin city centre, but the funding freeze means it cannot be staffed. The same applies to a drop in centre on Middle Abbey Street, which the Anna Liffey Drug Project had been due to open.

Where does this leave the government’s official target to end homelessness?

Many believe government policies were already destined to fail this task. In a recent article Fr Peter McVerry and Eoin Carroll identify the problem with present homeless services. When someone is accommodated, whether in hostels, B&Bs or some other form of temporary accommodation, they are still homeless. Emergency hostels are still desperately needed, as anyone who has taken a walk through Dublin can testify. But these do not provide a way back into mainstream society and something most of us take for granted, a place to call home. The government’s failure to invest in social housing blocks the way to this transition for many people. A glance at the statistics reveals why. Figures for 2005 show 43,700 households nationally waiting for social housing. “On the waiting lists… homeless people(75 percent of whom are single) vie with families living in hopelessly inappropriate or overcrowded accommodation.”

If Fr McVerry is right, homelessness cannot be ended without a drastic change of policy. In the meantime, those providing services face cutbacks, as the government fails its own commitments. And ministers are still expecting a pay increase next year.

Dublin Simon Press Release, 28 February 2008 - http://www.dubsimon.ie/publications/press_releases.htm
Irish Times, February 28 2008 - http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0228/inde....html
“Homes not Hostels” in Working Notes Issue 56, November 2007 - http://www.cfj.ie