Discrimination against homeless non-nationals by homeless services in Dublin has been alleged in an unpublished report.
The report, written by Crosscare, the Social Support Agency of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, says non-nationals are being "refused" and "denied access to" homelessness services by Dublin City Council's central placement service (CPS), "for questionable reasons".
It also says non-nationals are incorrectly being denied the opportunity to apply for social housing.
Dated March 2015, the report says homeless non-nationals are routinely being “summarily turned away at the door [of the CPS] after cursory questioning as regards their nationality and/or period of residence in the country”.
The report was brought to The Irish Times by its author, an employee of Crosscare. The charity would not comment on the report last night.
Conclusions rejected
A spokesman for the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE), which co-ordinates homeless services in Dublin, rejected the conclusions of the report, saying: “A destitute migrant at risk of homelessness and referred to/presenting to CPS will be assessed and we will place the person or household into emergency accommodation...We always seek to prevent rough sleeping in Dublin and ensure an effective response.”
According to Department of the Environment regulations, EEA nationals are entitled to social housing support from their local authority if they are working, or if unemployed if they had been working for at least a year.
The EEA includes all EU states and Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
Non-EEA nationals must prove an “aggregate of at least five years prior residence”.
The Crosscare report says “at least 80” non-nationals Crosscare had dealt with who should have been assisted by the CPS were instead referred on to the New Communities Unit (NCU) run by the Department of Social Protection.
Cohort not counted
It says a cohort of the homeless population is not being counted as officially “homeless” in the DRHE statistics.
The NCU said in 2013 it provided emergency accommodation to “2,756 customers” - an average of 53 per week.
“The nationalities of those accommodated include Polish, Romanian, Moldovan, Lithuanian, Latvian, Nigerian, Bulgarian, South African, Somali and American,” it said.
The report said the basis upon which the CPS does not provide non-nationals with emergency accommodation is unclear.
The DRHE spokesman said this was not an official report and “was not sought nor commissioned by DRHE. It was an internal report within a NGO service provider”, and not to be considered “reliable”.
