Homeless families will ‘no longer be a priority in capital’

‘Not considering alternatives’

HOMELESS families in Dublin would no longer get priority when it comes to assigning council houses under proposals being considered by the city council.

The authority’s proposal comes two months after Housing Agency chief Conor Skehan claimed some families may be ‘gaming the system’ by declaring themselves homeless to jump the housing queue.

However, Dublin City Council’s housing chief, Brendan Kenny, yesterday insisted the authority’s proposal had nothing to do with Mr Skehan’s comments.

Instead, he said it was based on Dublin Regional Homeless Executive research showing that families who are newly homeless are much more likely to avail of the Housing Assistance Payment and have shorter stays in emergency accommodation. But families who stay in emergency accommodation longer than six months are likelier to reject HAP and wait it out for a council house. Priorities: Brendan Kenny

Mr Kenny said: ‘We are concerned that families will endure a prolonged period in emergency accommodation and not consider alternatives in order to secure what they believe to be the most sustainable option for their family: ie social housing.

‘This is completely understandable but DCC does not have adequate stock and families may not realise that waiting for a social housing offer given the current numbers in homeless services is likely to take some years.’

The council said it intends to stop prioritising homeless families to discourage prolonged stays in emergency accommodation.

Councillors will vote on the proposal later this month.

Mr Kenny yesterday told council members a review of letting priorities ‘has been in place for some time’.

He said: ‘It was in place a long time before those comments by Conor Skehan. We are making [it] very clear that this is nothing to do with those comments. We don’t agree with those comments and we have no evidence of anybody gaming the system. It is not what we are about.’

He added: ‘We are not talking about de-prioritising homelessness.’

However, a change in priorities was clearly mentioned in a scheme of lettings sub-group report to the council’s housing strategic policy committee yesterday. It stated: ‘We are proposing to continue assessing homelessness as defined in the 1988 Act and recording it as the basis of need. But [we] will no longer prioritise offers of social housing to homeless families ahead of other households who have prior dates of application.’

And it stated the main reasons were that ‘people who are longest on the waiting list are almost as vulnerable and at risk of being made homeless as the homeless themselves’.

The report also referred to ‘overcrowding in the private sector’. And it stated that ‘our own social housing stock that may become unsustainable and result in homelessness’.

Homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry last night said he sympathised with the council. ‘It is an indictment of government’s homeless policy,’ he said. ‘I have sympathy with the council, especially as about 80% of the homeless in this country are in Dublin. But there are other families who are in dire circumstances.

‘We should be building social housing and not pushing more and more people into the private sector. After all, it is the private sector that has made a lot of people homeless in the first place.’

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