Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock/Svetlana.Is

A changing promise: The Government said it would get families in hotels out of homelessness, but now it's putting them into hubs

A July deadline for getting families out of commercial hotels will not be met.

ELEVEN MONTHS AGO the new Fine Gael minority government launched its action plan to address housing and homelessness in Ireland.

Rebuilding Ireland was a 113-page document aimed at addressing the spiralling housing crisis. The new government had committed to delivering it within its first 100 days in office.

On 19 July, then-Housing Minister Simon Coveney launched the action plan to much fanfare. It contained provisions for kickstarting building, increasing social housing and improving the rental sector.

One aspect of the plan that caused a lot of commentary at the time was the commitment to end the use of commercial hotels and Bed & Breakfasts to house homeless families by the middle of 2017.

As the number of homeless families increased dramatically from the beginning of this decade, the State found it was ill-equipped to house them.

Commercial hotels and Bed & Breakfasts began to be used more and more frequently as emergency accommodation.

Originally meant as a short-term solution, families – often with very young children – ended up staying in them for longer and longer periods of time as the problem worsened.

In June 2016, there were 682 families with 1,372 children staying in commercial hotels in Dublin alone (where the situation is by far at its worst).

img_20160722_133544795_hdr Activists and residents of a hotel used to house homeless families protesting outside last year. Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

Hotels are highly unsuitable. Families would often be crowded into single rooms with no cooking or cleaning facilities onsite. Mould, damp and bed bugs were common complaints in some places.

So, Rebuilding Ireland’s commitment to end the use of hotels was welcomed, but serious doubts were expressed that the target could be met. Coveney reiterated the commitment several times during his time as Housing Minister.

In March (among other times) he told TheJournal.ie that the target would be met by July, and as the month came closer, Coveney refused to budge.

Earlier this month, Coveney left the Housing Department to be replaced by new minister Eoghan Murphy. Murphy finally told reporters on Thursday in a roundabout way that the July target would not be met.

Focus Ireland Annual Report Launch 4 Ashley Balbirnie, Chief Executive Focus Ireland (left) and Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy TD. Robbie Reynolds Robbie Reynolds

It confirmed something that most people involved with housing and homelessness had known for months.

The commitment 

The actual commitment around hotels and families set out in Rebuilding Ireland is this:

Ensure that by mid-2017 hotels are only used in limited circumstances for emergency accommodation for families, by meeting housing needs through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and general housing allocations, and by providing new supply to be delivered through:
- An expanded Rapid Build Housing Programme [1,500 units]
-A Housing Agency initiative to acquire vacant houses [1,600 units]

Once the plan was launched, serious doubts were raised whether this goal could possibly be met.

At the time, TheJournal.ie analysed the commitment and spoke to Focus Ireland’s advocacy manager Mike Allen. Allen expressed serious doubts that the target could be reached.

download (2) Mike Allen in 2014.

“It’s very hard to see all those bits adding up in time,” he said.

Let’s hope they do. But when you look at the figures they’re pointing in the right direction to tell you that that can’t actually be achieved.

Allen’s views were echoed by others working within homelessness and housing services.

Rapid-build houses were seen as unreliable, and experts were unconvinced that they could be delivered on time.

There was also a belief that the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) – which is paid to landlords by local councils on behalf of tenants – would not be as effective as the government was hoping without an increase in housing supply.

On both these counts, critics of the commitment were right: the modular housing units due to be delivered by now have been delayed; and there are a number of issues being raised with HAP.

But as the months passed and 2017 began, the commitment to end hotel use changed its direction, and the term “family hubs” started to be used.

Family hubs 

Back in July last year, there was a sense that what was meant by using hotels “only in limited circumstances” was that the vast bulk of homeless families would be permanently housed.

This was the impression given by the plan and explains much of the criticism and doubt with which it was met. Each month since the launch of Rebuilding Ireland homelessness has gotten worse.

In early February, the narrative began to shift from providing homeless families with long-term housing, to moving them from hotels into “family hubs”.

(The first mention of the family hub model in the media appears to be in the Irish Times on 7 February)

Family hubs are group accommodation units specifically for families. They aim to provide cooking, cleaning and onsite support services for families (making them a more attractive option than commercial hotels).

They are operated by different not-for-profit organisations and are located across Dublin. In some cases, the hubs have been criticised.

For example, the plan to use a former Bargaintown warehouse in Coolock as a family hub was met with local resistance; the use of former commercial hotels has also been strongly criticised.

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

The first High Park hub in Drumcondra – operated by Respond! – opened in December.

There are at least 16 hubs planned with more possibly in the pipeline, with the end goal of housing all the homeless families currently residing in commercial hotels in Dublin.

Missing the deadline 

This week, Eoghan Murphy finally announced that the July deadline for getting families out of hotels would not be met.

In fact, what he said was that “the delivery of some of the accommodation solutions will stretch beyond the 1 July deadline”.

IMG_20170622_115813 Murphy speaking to reporters during the week. Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

Murphy did commit that 650 or so families staying in commercial hotels in Dublin in May would either be re-housed in family hubs or have been written to giving them notice of where they were going by the end of this month.

In relation to new families becoming homeless – 50 to 70 a month  - he said the department  was working to ensure that these families were given “certainty” about where they were going.

Murphy’s confirmation of the deadline being missed confirmed what workers in homeless services had been saying repeatedly.

While the Housing Department, ministers, and the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive – which manages homeless services across the Dublin region – all steadfastly refused to say that the target wouldn’t be met, charity workers said differently.

Murphy committed to still working hard to ensure that the use of commercial hotels ends, but as Mike Allen pointed out, that is not the goal that was originally intended in Rebuilding Ireland.

“The second part of that commitment has been forgotten over the period of time and it’s now just moving people into these hubs,” Allen told TheJournal.ie.

Rebuilding Ireland doesn’t think that’s the answer, we don’t think that’s the answer.

Focus Ireland said that the attention needs to shift away from emergency measures, towards actually getting people out of homelessness.

But while the number of families in hotels might be going down, the figures are showing that the number of families becoming homeless is going to continue to rise every month.

Read: Taking rundown Dublin buildings and turning them into homes

Read: ‘It could take 40 years to provide enough homes for people on Dublin’s housing list’

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
27 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ☘
    Favourite ☘
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 9:46 AM

    people can move all around ireland with guns and drugs and i bet if i drove one day without road tax i would be in court,

    382
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ed Collins
    Favourite Ed Collins
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 9:50 AM

    @☘: and rightly so

    129
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The long walk home☘️
    Favourite The long walk home☘️
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 10:01 AM

    @Ed Collins: who is giving you thumbs up , have you 17 accounts? people really believe it should be easier move around Ireland with guns than a dodgy tax disc. No wonder we’re screwed

    118
    See 9 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute STOIC SAVAGE
    Favourite STOIC SAVAGE
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 10:03 AM

    @The long walk home☘️: no one said that though??

    43
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mjhint
    Favourite Mjhint
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 10:08 AM

    @Ed Collins: shows where your priorities lie. We have a traffic corpin Ireland with poor resources to serious crime all the way up to the prison service & road tax is yours and the government’s priority. Orwell described you well. No louder voice to be heard defending an oppressor than that of the oppressed. It’s people like you who have the country and its people on it’s knees.

    47
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The long walk home☘️
    Favourite The long walk home☘️
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 10:19 AM

    @STOIC SAVAGE: that was his point or did it go way over your head?

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tommy Roche
    Favourite Tommy Roche
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 10:49 AM

    @☘: In fairness, it’s far easier to spot an untaxed car than it is to spot a car carrying guns or drugs. And just as an aside, if you end up in court for driving an untaxed car, it means your tax has been out of date for a hell of a lot longer than one day. You have one month from expiry date of your motor tax to get it renewed. Its written on your renewal notice. Go into a second month untaxed and you pay a penalty when you finally do tax it, and you may get an on the spot fine. 3rd month you’d certainly get a fine and theres a risk the car could be impounded. Purely anecdotal, but from what I’ve seen/heard you’d really need to be taking the mick to end up in court for non-payment of motor tax alone, ie, expired for a year or more.

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jesse James
    Favourite Jesse James
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 10:59 AM

    @Mjhint: We don’t have Traffic Gardai in Ireland. They are regular Gardai in cars marked Roads Policing.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul
    Favourite Paul
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 11:33 AM

    @Jesse James: incorrect. We have a dedicated Roads Policing Unit, they are appointed to those units and are no longer on the regular units.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute my name
    Favourite my name
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 11:36 AM
    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute STOIC SAVAGE
    Favourite STOIC SAVAGE
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 11:59 AM

    @The long walk home☘️: nah…. His point was both are illegal and rightly punishable by law… Think it was your head it went over pal

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thomas Maher
    Favourite Thomas Maher
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 12:12 PM

    @☘: they dont drive around with guns taped to the windscreen theyre a bit harder to spot than the lack of a tax disc

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The long walk home☘️
    Favourite The long walk home☘️
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 9:54 AM

    life should mean life, some of these people are out after 11 years still young men.

    115
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute MickN
    Favourite MickN
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 10:12 AM

    Another week another tragedy in Louth.. For the size of the county its never out of the news…

    55
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conor V
    Favourite Conor V
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 10:39 AM

    @MickN: it’s a bid County :)

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Leo Lalor
    Favourite Leo Lalor
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 11:46 AM

    How long is this feud going on. Like the kinehan hutch feud and it appears all the gardai are capable of is hiding on motorways catching you at 125 kph. Traffic corps are a waste of resource for the public. Fianna Gael love them . Revenue collection

    53
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Kavanagh
    Favourite Michael Kavanagh
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 11:58 AM

    @Leo Lalor:
    The auld penalty points mounting up, are they? Try a simple solution – obey the rules of the road- it works!

    43
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Joe & Bridie
    Favourite John Joe & Bridie
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 11:58 AM

    @Leo Lalor: Yawn

    26
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eamonn Ó Maoldomhnaigh
    Favourite Eamonn Ó Maoldomhnaigh
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 12:54 PM

    @Leo Lalor: A good few of the Hutch/ Kinehan murders have been solved but don’t let that stop your bit of Garda bashing.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seaniecp
    Favourite Seaniecp
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 1:37 PM

    @Leo Lalor: I’m sure more people die on the roads each year then to gangland violance. Maybe I’m wrong.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Think Before You Buy
    Favourite Think Before You Buy
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 1:06 PM

    The violence, not just in Louth, but across the country is directly related to the vast amount of money generated through using drugs for recreational purposes. It is for control of the area in which this money is spent that these gangs are fighting to control. Remember it always harms someone THINK BEFORE YOU BUY http://www.thinkbeforeyoubuy.ie

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute aYoungRory
    Favourite aYoungRory
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 2:04 PM

    I’m calling for a head banger hunger games this year.
    Let every wannabe lunatic in Ireland meet up in Longford on December 8th when it’s empty for Culchie Christmas…. No holds barred, no innocents hurt and less than 2k damage done. We can hold a mass funeral at 12 midnight for the fallen and crown the last standing survivor ‘Hardest Man in Ireland’.

    Danny Dyer can present the trophy to him moments before we fire both men into the surface of the moon.

    Then we take the homes of the losers and redistribute them to the homeless.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Maciej Zadorozny
    Favourite Maciej Zadorozny
    Report
    Aug 28th 2019, 1:18 PM
    4
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds