The national housing and homeless charity, Peter McVerry Trust, has announced that it has begun delivery of a new Housing First programme in the Mid East Region, covering Kildare County Council, Meath County Council and Wicklow County Council.
The charity has been working in the region for several years providing emergency accommodation and supports to people impacted by homelessness. The new programme is part of national roll out of Housing First model which has been hugely successful in housing people sleeping rough and long-term service users. It is being delivered in partnership with each of the three County Councils, the HSE and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.
Pat Doyle, CEO of Peter McVerry Trust said “We are delighted to be rolling out Housing First in the Mid East Region in partnership with the County Councils and the HSE. This programme is about getting the most vulnerable people impacted by homelessness off the streets, out of hostels and into a secure home of their own. Once housed we will be using a high-intensity visiting support team to provide wraparound supports to make every success of each new tenancy generated.”
“We have been working on Housing First for a number of years now and we are delighted we can bring our experience of the model to the wider Mid-East region of Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. This model is different because it puts housing front and centre. of the response to people impacted by homelessness and shifts away from the emergency hostel model. Adopted worldwide, Housing First is hugely successful at not only providing housing for complex cases but ensuring they remain housed years later.”
“Our target now for the contract is to generate a minimum of 72 new tenancies in the Mid East up to the end of 2021, broken down into 29 in Kildare, 19 in Wicklow and 24 in Meath. We have hit the ground running and are working hard to not only meet our targets but exceed them. We have already secured our first Housing First tenancy in each of the counties and we are working on plans to ensure we get to our annual target as quickly as possible.”
For more information on our Housing First work visit: https://pmvtrust.ie/housing/housing-first/
