Partnership Approach is the Only Way to Address Ongoing Crisis

Peter McVerry Trust, the national housing and homeless charity, has called for greater efforts to deliver a housing-led response to the homeless crisis, and urged all stakeholders with an interest in securing a solution to work together.

Pat Doyle, CEO of Peter McVerry Trust, said the issue of homelessness could only be addressed through a genuine partnership approach. “Everyone needs to rally around efforts to deliver more social and affordable housing, all agencies and bodies that have a role to play in solving the crisis must work together with a renewed sense of urgency. We must now see an acceleration of our efforts to secure a housing led solution to this homeless crisis.”

“The problem of homelessness is clearly deepening, but that cannot allow us to lose sight of the fact that we can reverse this trend. There is a huge amount of work being undertaken day in and day out, and we need to remain committed to firstly stabilising and then reducing the numbers of people who are impacted by homelessness. There is a huge amount of commitment amongst staff and agencies whose skills, energy and resources are committed to turning this situation around. Everyone at Peter McVerry Trust will continue to work as hard as we possibly can, in partnership with government and local authorities to respond to this crisis.”

Mr Doyle also said that while the overall figures have risen substantially, it was clear that in some areas progress could be seen. “The fact that the number of adults without dependents in homelessness has dropped by 84 people is very welcome. This is a group whose needs can be often overshadowed and often find it harder to secure an exit due to the lack of one-bed units and the cost of the units that are available in the rental market.”

“The rough sleeper count also took place in Dublin last night and with increased monitoring of the rough sleeper numbers of late, we expect to see a clear decline in the number of people sleeping rough as a result of the new services that have been delivered by Peter McVerry Trust in partnership with the Dublin Region Homeless Executive during the response to Storm Emma.”“It’s clear though that the issue of family homelessness needs urgent attention and our first priority must be to stem the flow of families into homelessness.”