The Government has defended its record on tackling homelessness today, after the Department of the Environment published new figures.
The Government has defended its record on tackling homelessness today, after the Department of the Environment published new figures today.
The figures in the Annual Housing Statistics Bulletin show there were 2,560 homeless households when a survey was carried out in March 2002. On a national level the number of homeless people rose by almost 350 since 1999.
Labour Party's Eamon Gilmore called for an independent audit of the figures saying the Government was "massaging the figures on homelessness and housing need, in order to disguise the [its] hopeless failure in this area."
"On April 1st the Minister for Housing, Deputy Noel Ahern, told me in the Dáil that the number of homeless people on the streets of Dublin was only 79. Today his own Department's figures for homelessness show there were 2,920 adults and 1,140 children homeless in Dublin in March 2002."
Minister of State at the Department of the Environment Mr Noel Ahern said the Government remained "committed to tackling homelessness" insisting "the rise in the level of homelessness is minimal".
Mr Ahern said the €43 million spent by his Department on accommodation and related services for homeless persons in 2002 compared well with the €12.5 million spent in 1999. He added that "in spite of the tight financial situation", €50 million would be spent in 2003.
He was responding to claims made in the Dublin Simon Community's annual report, published today, that the Government had failed to honor its promise to fully fund these services. The report accused the Government of "trying to avoid confirming the continued existence of a homelessness crisis".
Mr Ahern said that he had approved funding of more than €1.6 million for Dublin Simon's accommodation and related programmes for homeless persons for 2003, "including over 420,000 for their street outreach programme which is an increase of 11 per cent on the funding in 2002".
Chief Executive Greg Maxwell, however said that the Dublin Simon Community had received less than two-thirds of the funding needed. "We have managed to double our service provision on the streets, without doubling our costs, and still the Government will not meet their commitments.".
Focus Ireland CEO Mr Declan Jones said cuts in central Government funding were damaging voluntary organisations ability to provide essential services to people who are homeless. Focus Ireland received 75 per cent of the total funding it applied for in 2003. "We are three years in to a Government strategy to tackle homelessness yet we are seeing the numbers of people who are homeless is rising instead of falling", he said.
According to the Simon report, the number of new people in contact with their Outreach Services in the first quarter of 2003 already exceeds the number for the first six months of 2002.
The report recommended that to solve the "homelessness crisis", the Government must increase substantially its spending on social housing, and initiate a comprehensive review of the national strategy to tackle homelessness.
Almost 3,000 adults are homeless in the Greater Dublin Area, according to the Simon report.