The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, has today (30 April 2021) published the Monthly Homeless Report for March and the Homeless Quarterly Progress Report for the first quarter of 2021.
The Quarterly Progress Report is prepared by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, based on quarterly performance reports submitted by the nine regional lead authorities responsible for the administration of homeless services at local level.The number of individuals presenting to homeless services and the number of people accessing emergency accommodation continued to decline in the first quarter of 2021, following a trend first established in fourth quarter of 2019. The March report confirms that there were 8,060 individuals accessing emergency accommodation, a decrease of 1,847 individuals (18.6%) on the 9,907 total recorded one year previously. This is the lowest number of homeless individuals recorded since June 2017.
The decrease in family homelessness was more pronounced. The year on year position is that March 2021 shows a decrease of 575 families (38.6%) on the 1,488 total recorded in March 2020. This represents the lowest number of families in emergency accommodation since March 2016.
The Quarterly Progress Report shows that 1,364 adults and their dependants exited from emergency accommodation or were prevented from entering into emergency accommodation in the first quarter of 2021. All these exits were to homes with tenancies. Viewed in the context of falling homeless numbers, the number of exits from homelessness remained high in the current quarter compared to the exits achieved previously,
Family presentations to homelessness in the Dublin region in the first quarter of 2021 were down 18% on the corresponding period in 2020. The number of families entering emergency accommodation fell over the same period, by 29%. In the first quarter of 2021, 236 families exited from emergency accommodation arrangements in Dublin into homes. There were 422 dependants in these families.
There were 913 families in emergency accommodation during the March 2021 survey, a decrease of 22 on the 935 recorded in February. This is the lowest number of families in emergency accommodation in five years, since March 2016.
“The reports published today show the important progress being made in the Housing First programme which supports those with the most complex needs. There are now 539 former rough sleepers and former long term users of emergency accommodation living in their own homes, with all the necessary support in place, by the end of the year the target of 663 will have been reached with an extended and expanded scheme announced later this year,” concluded Minister O’Brien