National Homeless Action Committee – Minutes of Q3-24 Meeting

Attendees (Attendees standing in for regular members marked with *)

Apologies: Jim Walsh (D/Health), Ben Ryan (D/Justice), Noel Hand (DSP), Andrew Patterson (DCEDIY), Niall Mulligan (PMVT), Clare Murphy (Tusla), Rosemarie Tobin (DHLGH), Jennifer Peyton (DHLGH)

• The Minister welcomed all attendees and noted new members, apologies and stand-ins.
• Noting that Bob Jordan will be shortly stepping down from his role as CEO of The Housing Agency, the Minister thanked Mr. Jordan for his contribution towards addressing housing challenges in his various roles and his valuable contribution to NHAC.
• The Minister invited Karen O’Connor (KOC) to provide an update on Genio funding, as agreed at last NHAC. KOC spoke on the funding programme to develop a model of culturally appropriate healthcare services for Traveller women who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. A written update has been shared with members.
• Maria Joyce (MJ) acknowledged the programme and noted the similarities in the approach with how the NTWF engage with women in the Dóchas centre, proposing that NHAC would consider at a future meeting the overrepresentation of Traveller women with complex homeless backgrounds in prison. MJ further requested an update on any outstanding Traveller-specific recommendations made to NHAC. Sinead Healy (SH) advised that the Department would respond to this request.
• Catherine Kenny (CK) raised ongoing issues with accessing CALF funding, with Pat Dennigan (PD) also reporting difficulties securing CALF funding for acquisitions. David Kelly (DK) noted that work is ongoing to examine the relevant issues. CK stated she had previously sent in examples of proposals to the Department.

• The Minister provided an update on:
• latest figures including numbers accessing EA, exits and preventions;
• meeting with the urban LAs at which the Minister emphasised the need for LAs to continue to use their allocations schemes to exit those in EA;
• positive impact of Tenant-in-Situ scheme – the Minister has highlighted to the LAs that 1,500 is “the floor, not the ceiling”; and
• the publication of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill in July.
• The Minister also noted that the review of the AHB sector is ongoing with a final research report expected later this month. PD highlighted issues regarding registration of a small number of AHBs with AHBRA. The Minister advised that work has been undertaken on this matter and it is anticipated that this will be addressed via inclusion of an amendment in the new Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. Sinéad Carr (SC) spoke on the need for the AHB sector to provide a certain percentage of Traveller specific accommodation. John-Mark McCafferty (JMcC) raised the need to better facilitate the merging of smaller AHBs. MJ stated there was a need for Traveller input into the forum and that focus needs to remain on homeless prevention in the first place.
• MJ also spoke on Mercy Law’s recent publication Excluded and Left Behind which outlined the lived experiences of long-term homelessness on minority families. MJ also spoke on the need to further improve data collection.

• Carl Morris (CM) from AsIAm gave a presentation on autism and homelessness.
• The Minister queried as to whether CM could give an example of good practice that could be modelled and rolled out further. CM responded that certain LAs across the country have a good understanding of autism and that many Access Officers have significant experience dealing with a variety of diagnosis which is most beneficial. The Minister also spoke on the Housing and Disability Steering Groups which exist in each LA.
• There was a discussion on the matter amongst members which included:
• Wayne Stanley (WS) noting the potential for Autism-friendly environments to bedeveloped, especially in family services.
• SC noting that there are different forms of autism and the importance of appropriate training which is something that can be investigated further.
• JMC acknowledging that there is a number of autistic people in the PRS and advising that there is good potential for exchange of knowledge between AsIAm and Threshold to further support this cohort.
• The Minister thanked Mr. Morris for his presentation. Mr. Morris then left the meeting.

• The Minister invited WS to open the discussion, as this agenda item was his suggestion.
• William McNamara (WMN) spoke to a paper which had been circulated to NHAC members, setting out an overview of Aftercare Services including numbers accessing the services and the supports provided by Tusla. WMN highlighted the need to mitigate the risk of homelessness for care lavers and for options other than CAS including transitional housing and preventative housing.
• At this point, the Minister had to leave for another meeting. Before leaving, the Minister noted that funding was to be discussed under AOB and proposed holding a separate meeting online on this matter in the next two weeks. DK then took over as chair.
• Sinead Healy (SH) spoke on the specific actions for Care Leavers in the YHS and advised that Circular 46/2014 Protocol on Young People Leaving State Care is currently being updated and obs will be sought from NHAC in due course.
• There was then a discussion on care leavers amongst members which included:
• Data captured by Tusla included queries on whether it quantifies the number of care leavers in homelessness (Conor Hickey) and whether there’s information around ethnicity (MJ). WMN noted that at present, that homeless data is not captured, but it’s being considered. Caroline Jordan (CJ) noted that work is ongoing to collect data on ethnicity but relies on self-identification.
• Mary Hayes (MH) advising that Dublin are inundated with referrals and must consider how to address this, possibly going to the Council with recommendation.
• PD highlighted difficulties with accessing properties for CAS as the market is already small and often competing with other programmes such as Housing First. There was a discussion on suitable properties.

• Mary Hayes (MH) noted that the new subgroup was focusing on examining barriers to moveons from EA. MH provided an update on the subgroup’s discussions to date. MH highlighted that the Dublin profile shows that 1 in 5 have a need for a 4-bed with some only having limited time on the housing list. MH also spoke on DSP’s Exceptional Needs Payments which have supported exits from EA. DK asked about the potential for the subgroup to quantify the scale of the challenges in order to support the direction of policy to address issues. MH agreed to look into this.
• SH advised that the Department is still progressing recommendations made by previous subgroups and that an updated paper would be circulated to NHAC in Q4.

• SH advised that an 18-month YHS progress report was published in July. SH advised that another youth- specific information campaign will launch at the end of the month and that the first participants of SHY are due to move into their properties in the coming weeks.

• Mary Hayes (MH) advised that the August report is showing 39% of presentations of single adults were from Direct Provision.1 Both CH and DC suggested there was a need for a new strategy to address the numbers with leave to remain in Direct Provision. DK responded that the Department is aware of the challenge and advised that a Cabinet Committee on Migration has been established.
• DK thanked those present for attending and advised that a date for the Q4 meeting would be circulated in due course.

Footnote: 1. Provisional figure for Dublin region subject to reconciliation process prior to publication at the end of September

You can download the National Homeless Action Committee – Minutes of Q3-24 Meeting below: