To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of free public transport to children in emergency accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
REPLY Supporting individuals and families experiencing homelessness is a priority for this Government. Rebuilding Ireland, the Government's Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness includes a range of measures relating to the provision of emergency accommodation and the range of supports to be provided to households experiencing homelessness. Under Rebuilding Ireland, my Department is funding an initiative to provide homeless families residing in temporary emergency accommodation in the Dublin Region with access to free public transport for essential school journeys. The Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) oversees the implementation of this initiative and, working in partnership with the National Transport Authority, has put arrangements in place for the provision of Leap cards to the families concerned. These Leap cards provide for free public transport for school-going children and accompanying adults, where necessary.
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To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of specific policy and procedural guidance to housing authorities with regard to the role they can play to assist victims of domestic violence to secure new, independent tenancies as required.
REPLY My Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities. Responsibility for the provision, funding and oversight of services to support victims of domestic violence, including refuges, rests with Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, under the aegis of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. In line with commitments made under Rebuilding Ireland, my Department issued guidance in January 2017 to all local authorities in relation to assisting victims of domestic violence with emergency and long-term accommodation needs. The guidance is also a useful reference for service providers working in the domestic violence services sector, highlighting where they can be of greatest assistance to their clients, covering a range of scenarios that may arise for victims of domestic violence in seeking social housing supports. These include provisions around the use of the Housing Assistance Payment scheme, or the Rental Accommodation Scheme, where a victim has a joint interest in the family home, or ownership of alternative accommodation, but would otherwise qualify for social housing support. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the housing procurement office within the Housing Agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
REPLY Pillar 2 of Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness committed to the establishment of a Housing Procurement Unit within the Housing Agency to provide a procurement centre of excellence and advice to support local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (ABHs) in the accelerated delivery of their social housing programmes. The unit forms part of the professional technical section within the Housing Agency which deals with projects, including the pyrite remediation scheme, and offers procurement advice and services to assist in the delivery of social housing. The Procurement Unit works closely with the other services within the Agency and also works with my Department, the Office of Government Procurement (OGP), Irish Council for Social Housing, Local Government Management Agency, City and County Mangers Association, the Housing Finance Agency and others to ensure that information and technical assistance provided is current, accurate, helpful and contributes to housing delivery. The Procurement Unit offers the following services:
To date, the unit has managed the tender and appointment of consultant design teams for Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 Approved Housing Bodies for over 30 housing projects in nine local authority areas. Each tender package was tailored for the specific needs of the client to ensure they get their required services within a procurement process carried out to best practice. The unit has assisted in procuring design teams for a wide range of projects including a large inner city urban development, refurbishment and conversion of existing buildings, a major 4-storey extension to a sheltered accommodation unit and the conversion of a rural post-office into housing units. The unit provides a continued technical service to local authorities and AHBs after the appointment of the design teams and remains available to answer queries and offer independent opinion on issues that may arise and on technical issues arising from the procurement process, irrespective of who carried out the procurement. The unit is available to work with local authorities and AHBs in the procurement of both consultants and works contractors, with experience of establishing and operating all of the building works contracts within the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF), including: Frameworks, Employer Design, Contractor Design, Minor Works under Pillar 1, and service agreements for consultancy services contracts under Pillar 2 of the CWMF. The unit has also experience of alternative procurement processes including competitive dialogue, and has assisted the OGP in setting up frameworks. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of tenancies provided by housing first teams in Dublin in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date 2019.
REPLY Housing First enables homeless individuals with high levels of complex needs to obtain permanent secure accommodation with the provision of intensive housing and health supports to help them maintain their tenancies. The National Implementation Plan for Housing First, published in September 2018, which puts the programme on a national footing, is designed to provide this response, by delivering permanent housing solutions and associated supports for rough sleepers and long-term users of emergency accommodation. It extends the delivery of Housing First nationally, with the introduction of targets for each local authority. The Plan includes an overall target of 663 tenancies in the period 2018-2021. The implementation of the Plan is a joint initiative of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Department of Health, the HSE and the local authorities. The Housing First programme has been operating in the Dublin region since 2014, following a successful pilot. A total of 34 tenancies were created in 2016, 106 tenancies in 2017, 83 tenancies in 2018 and 94 tenancies up to October 2019. Following a tendering process by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, the Peter McVerry Trust will operate this service to deliver a further 400 Housing First tenancies over the next three years. The status of a safety guidance and voluntary code for child safety in emergency accommodation.27/11/2019 To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of a safety guidance and voluntary code for child safety in emergency accommodation.
REPLY Supporting individuals and families experiencing homelessness is a priority for this Government. Rebuilding Ireland, the Government's Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness includes a range of measures relating to the provision of emergency accommodation and the range of supports to be provided to households experiencing homelessness. Arising out of a commitment made in Rebuilding Ireland, a specific course on child protection was developed in partnership between the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) and Tusla. The DRHE has been providing Child Protection training to Private Emergency Accommodation staff, which covers their legal responsibilities under child protection legislation, reviewing the reasonable grounds for concern and the thresholds for reporting and reporting concerns where appropriate. Child protection booklets have been distributed to operators of private emergency accommodation. Child safety is an integral element of the National Quality Standards Framework for Homeless Services, which is fully operational in Dublin and is being rolled out nationally over a 12-month period from 1 July 2019. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the specific funding under the capital assistance scheme for AHBs to respond to the accommodation needs of young persons that leave state care in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019.
REPLY Under my Department’s Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS), capital funding of up to 100% of project costs may be advanced by local authorities to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to provide housing for specific categories of housing need, which can include persons leaving State care. Under this heading, where a local authority is informed by Tusla that there is a need for accommodation for people aged 18-21 (or up to 23 if in education/training) leaving State care and who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, it may invite AHBs to apply for CAS funding to provide appropriate accommodation. There is no specific amount of the overall annual CAS allocation ring-fenced for such projects. Instead, my Department provides funding for individual projects as they are advanced by the local authorities on a project by project basis. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of steps to launch an assessment of scope for provision of additional student accommodation on local authority or other publicly-owned lands. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government that status of the student housing officer funded by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY Pillar 4 of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, published in July 2016, focuses on the supply of rented accommodation and includes specified actions to increase the supply of student accommodation in Ireland. The National Student Accommodation Strategy was subsequently launched in July 2017 by the Minister for Education and Skills in conjunction with Action 4.07 of Rebuilding Ireland. Identified measures in assisting the development of new student accommodation projects included reforms related to planning matters and to development finance which were then provided for in the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016. Firstly, under Action 4.13, the fast tracking of planning applications for construction projects with more than 200 student bedspaces was created under the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) route directly to An Bord Pleanala. As of the end October 2019, this has resulted in the granting of planning permissions for 7,573 student bedspaces nationally under the SHD procedure. In addition, legislative provisions (Action 4.11) were also created to facilitate financing from the Housing Finance Agency to the Higher Education Institutes, specifically for new student accommodation projects. There has been a sustained increase in the planning and construction of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) nationally since the adoption of Rebuilding Ireland in 2016. As of the end of Q3, 2019, a total of 8,229 bed spaces have been completed since the adoption of Rebuilding Ireland. This delivery exceeds the objective under Action 4.08 of Rebuilding Ireland to bring on stream 7,000 student accommodation places by end 2019. In addition, there are a further 5,254 bed spaces on site and plans approved for an additional 7,771 bed spaces, representing a total of 21,254 bed spaces either complete, under construction or with plans granted at the end of Q3 2019 which indicates a strong pipeline of new student housing construction projects to continue growth to 2021 and beyond. Action 4.07 of Rebuilding Ireland referred to the scope for the provision of student accommodation on local authority or other publicly-owned lands. Circular letter PL8/2016 to local authorities encouraged their collaboration with the Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in developing student accommodation projects. To this end the ‘State Lands Map’ was also published on the Rebuilding Ireland website in 2017 and this resource provides details and mapping of state owned lands including those controlled by the local authorities and the Housing Agency. The HEIs have been made aware of this resource through the Inter-Departmental Working Group on Student Accommodation established by the Department of Education and Skills and many are progressing plans to develop student accommodation. Efforts to expand short-term capacity enhancing measures in the student accommodation sector are identified in Action 4.10. My Department has provided funding of €130,000 in the 2016-19 period to the Union of Students in Ireland in this regard to assist in funding a Student Housing Officer, training and other activities such as the #homesforstudy campaign. This initiative involves a website and other initiatives to encourage homeowners in targeted locations across the country to earn up to €14,000 tax free under the rent-a-room scheme by accommodating a student. An additional provision has also been made for the UCD Students Union, who are outside the USI. A submission for further funding for the 2019/20 academic year has been made by the USI jointly to the Department of Education and Skills and my Department including proposals for continuing the #homesforstudy.ie campaign and other activities in the student accommodation area. This submission is being considered currently with a decision anticipated shortly. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government that status of the 15 to 20 key pathfinder sites with a proven capability to deliver a significant scaling-up of new homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY As part of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan, the Major Urban Housing Delivery Sites (MUHDS) programme was launched in November 2016. This initiative provides an administrative framework to support local authorities involved in the delivery of housing in major urban centres in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick. These key strategic housing sites, details of which are set out in the Table below, were identified as having a capacity to deliver a significant scale of new homes, in conjunction with local authorities and other key stakeholders such as Irish Water, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, etc. Development on many of these sites has been progressed with the support of funding streams such as the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) and the Serviced Sites Fund and through the MUHDS regional and national fora which were established to improve co-ordination between facilitating interests. LIHAF currently provides funding support to projects on 13 MUHDS sites. This funding covers the cost of facilitating infrastructure and services to enable the delivery of private, social and more affordable dwellings. Details of the MUHDS sites which are benefitting from LIHAF funding can be found on the Rebuilding Ireland website at https://rebuildingireland.ie/lihaf/. A ‘Story Map’ facility is also available to highlight the infrastructure delivery and the associated housing delivery for MUHDS sites and LIHAF projects. This can be found at https://rebuildingireland.ie/news/muhds-lihaf-story-map/. Accelerating delivery of housing for the private, social and rented sectors is a key priority for the Government. The solutions to this challenge are wide-ranging and require a number of immediate-, medium- and long-term actions to increase delivery and address underlying structural issues that, up to now, have been obstacles to creating a more stable and sustainable housing market. Progress on (MUHD) sites continues to be monitored through the MUHDS structures at a national and local level. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of staff currently engaged by the housing delivery office within his Department; and the number per annum since its inception; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY In line with the commitment under Action 2.9 of Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, a dedicated Housing Delivery Office (HDO) was established within my Department, in August 2016, to support the accelerated delivery of housing across the social and private sectors, and tenure spectrum, in an integrated and timely manner. Working with the broader Housing and Planning Divisions in my Department, other key agencies, local authorities and the construction sector, the HDO supports the roll-out of complex projects, including identifying and resolving barriers to delivery, and monitors development across key sites as they progress. At the time of its establishment, the HDO comprised a team of 4 people with extensive expertise in project management, finance, planning and local government, including staff seconded from the local government sector and the National Development Finance Agency. Having carried out a range of initial initiatives, and taking account of the fact that some assignments to the office were time-limited, the HDO was refocused in September 2017 to work more closely on supporting local housing delivery and land management. In that context, the current team is comprised of 2 civil servants with experience of housing delivery and the local government sector. In addition to this complement of staff, the HDO draws on supports from other relevant Business Units in my Department, the local authorities and other relevant public bodies. More recently, my Department has been engaging with the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) in respect of the sector's further delivery needs and, against this background, I met with Chief Executives in September 2019 to discuss plans for a newly reconfigured HDO. I expect to receive final proposals from the LGMA in this regard shortly. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of the Re-Building Ireland commitment to bring forward pilot projects, beginning with Dublin City Council based on best practice and cost effectiveness taking a cross Departmental inter-agency approach to housing initiatives for older persons. REPLY Action 2.16 of Rebuilding Ireland states that my Department will bring forward pilot projects, beginning with Dublin City Council, based on best practice and cost effectiveness taking a cross Departmental / inter-agency approach to housing initiatives for older people. The aim of this Action is to examine the potential for mainstreaming best practice projects, which bring together the HSE and local authorities with designers and academic groups. Such models would cater for those who, while not requiring full nursing home care, have been assessed as having healthcare needs that can be met in the community. Work on this Action has been underway for some time now and a pathfinder project at St.Michael's Estsate, Inchicore, Dublin 8 will include 52 'living with support' homes for older people. The 'housing with support' model brings together a range of services and supports, principally relating to housing, community, social and care needs. It seeks to provide an appropriate physical and supportive environment that enables older persons to live in their own homes within their own community, thereby both promoting independence and reducing or deferring the need to move into long term residential care. The project is underpinned by a cross-Departmental inter-agency approach and involves cooperation between my Department, the Housing Agency, Dublin City Council, HSE, the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH), Circle VHA and Alone. This pilot project has been approved for funding through my Department's Capital Assistance Scheme and is currently at planning permission stage, with construction likely to commence in or around Summer 2020. In tandem with the work on the St. Michael’s project, housing initiatives for older people are also a focus of the policy statement ‘Housing Options for our Ageing Population’ which was jointly published by my Department and the Department of Health. An Implementation group, which includes a range of stakeholders, has been put in place to work on the Actions under the Statement and will be reporting to myself and to my colleague, Minister Daly, Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People. |
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All Parliamentary Questions I make about Housing, Planning and Local Government and their answers can be viewed in this section Archives
December 2019
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