Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, has called Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to include all 10 of the Homeless Policy Group’s recommendations into any new Programme for Government.
The Dublin Mid-West TD added that unless there is a radical change of policy, as set out by the 10 homeless NGOs in the Homeless Policy Group, homelessness will continue to rise in 2025.
Teachta Ó Broin said:
“Last week 10 of the state’s leading homeless charities launched 10 key actions on homelessness for the new government. The document sets out ten high-level policy objectives that these groups believe are essential if the new Government is to reduce homelessness in 2025.
“The 10 actions include increasing both overall housing targets and social housing targets, placing a greater focus on homeless prevention, and improving supports for families and people with mental health challenges.
“Crucially, the key actions include recommitting to ending homelessness and the need to sleep rough by 2030 and to have a clear strategy for achieving this.
“All of the Homeless Policy Group’s proposals are in line with Sinn Féin’s housing plan A Home Of Your Own. Indeed, on a number of issues, our plan goes further, particularly with respect to overall housing targets, homeless allocations and specific measures to prevent homelessness and accelerate exits from emergency accommodation.
“2025 must be the year that homelessness starts to fall. To achieve this, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael must incorporate all 10 of the Homeless Policy Group’s recommendations into any new programme for Government.
“Unless there is a radical change of policy, as set out by the 10 homeless NGOs in the Homeless Policy Group, homelessness will continue to rise in 2025.”
Homeless Policy Group Recommendations and Sinn Féin’s A Home of Your Own
HPG recommendation | SF policy | Verdict |
Develop collaborative structures to end homelessness: Develop a new homeless strategy with local authorities, relevant State bodies and organisations on the front line. | SF’s plan includes a dedicated section on ending homelessness and the need to sleep rough by 2030. This includes the agreement of an Ending Homelessness Action Plan with participation from all relevant stakeholders and clear timelines and deadlines for all agreed actions. | |
Build Enough Homes: 55,000 homes a year including 15,000 social homes. | SF’s plan proposed an average of at least 60,000 new homes a year in the life-time of the new government. Of these, 15,000 should be social on average each year. | |
End long term homelessness by 2030: 10% of all new social housing allocated to homeless households. | SF’s plan proposed three streams of allocations for people experiencing homelessness, including 2500 Housing First tenancies for single people, 14,000 direct Council allocations from new and existing stock, and 10,000 additional allocations using emergency planning and procurement powers and new building technologies. This means 26,500 allocations to households experiencing homelessness over five years, significantly more than the 7,500 units proposed by the HPF. | |
Prioritise homeless prevention measures | SF’s plan has a specific section on homeless prevention, including funding 6,500 tenant-in-situ rental properties over five years along with a temporary reintroduction of the ban on evictions while the delivery of social housing ramps up. | |
Ensure that nobody has to sleep rough | SF’s plan has specific commitments regarding ending the need to sleep rough by improving the standard of emergency accommodation including ending communal hostel accommodation. We also have proposals to assist those with refugee status or leave to remain trapped in Direct Provision. Separately our policy on International Protection includes increased investment in state delivered temporary and less reliance on expensive and poorer quality private emergency accommodation. | |
Develop strategy for private rental sector | SF’s plan has an entire section on the private rental sector including both a long-term vision and a series of reforms to stabilise the sector to provide security and stability for both tenants and landlords. | |
Fully implement the Youth Homeless Strategy | SF’s plan proposed extending the lifespan of the Youth Homeless Strategy to 2030 and fully integrating it into the new Ending Homelessness Action Plan to ensure its full implementation. | |
Introduce a range of measures to tackle issues facing homeless families | SF is fully committed to implementing both the Homeless Families Bill (2017) and the Homeless Prevention Bill (2020). Our plan also proposed a dedicated stream of social housing using emergency procurement and planning powers to target both the over 55sd in emergency accommodation and families with children to ensure significant year on year reductions to both older person and family homelessness. | |
Improve mental health services for people experiencing homelessness | SF policy includes significant increases in investment in mental health services and addiction and recovery services. Our Ending Homeless Action Plan will involve mental health and addiction/recovery agencies and service providers to ensure proper investment in and coordination of mental health and addiction/recovery services for those at risk of and experiencing homelessness. | |
Improve the transparency of access to homeless services, including a new appeals system and updated training for local authority staff | SF fully supports this objective and is currently drafting legislation to provide greater clarity with regard to the obligations of local authorities when providing emergency accommodation. As part of this we will be including a formal appeals mechanism both for those refused access to social housing and to emergency accommodation. Our housing plan also includes provision for increased training for all those working in homeless services, to ensure that they are equipped to provide trauma informed care for those at risk of or experiencing homelessness. |