MINISTER Simon Coveney has launched “the most comprehensive response to homelessness ever seen” today.
The plan, which was set to be launched at 1pm today, details social housing building on a scale never seen before.
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A €5.35 billion funding package is to be made available for social housing between 2016 and 2021, with 47,000 social housing units set to be secured through building, acquisition and refurbishment of existing properties.
A “significant proportion” of these units are earmarked for Cork city and county, Minister Coveney confirmed to the Evening Echo today, stressing his focus on ensuring that these units are integrated.
Minister Coveney said social housing should mix seamlessly with private housing.
“I think the big difference in terms of what we are doing is radically changing how we deliver social houses in terms of where they are,” Minister Coveney said.
“What I am determined not to do is to build tens of thousands of social houses in the same areas in cities. Historically, in Cork, we have built the vast majority of social housing on the north side of the city and the vast majority of the private houses are on the south side of the city.”
“I don’t want to create segregation between social housing and private housing in a way that we have seen in the past.”
A key pillar of the plan is dealing with the current crisis of homelessness, notably the issue of families living in hotels and B&Bs as emergency accommodation.
“Within 12 months we effectively want to see the end of the use of hotels for emergency accommodation for families except in exceptional circumstances,” Minister Coveney announced.
In advance of this, supports for families generally are set to be increased, with assurances that those currently living in hotel accommodation will have free travel and public transport, as well as benefiting from “specific focus on making sure that there is a school completion programme and more practical supports around nutrition.”
HSE supports for homeless services are set to treble next year, with €6m earmarked for supports around primary care, mental health and counselling services and addiction supports with another €2.25m dedicated to the development of “a significant addiction management and detox facility in Dublin to be completed towards the end of next year.”
A streamlined planning process and strategic use of state lands will help meet demand, Mr Coveney said.
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A €5.35 billion funding package is to be made available for social housing between 2016 and 2021, with 47,000 social housing units set to be secured through building, acquisition and refurbishment of existing properties.