Tackling poverty and preventing homelessness

Commitment sought: People do not become or remain homeless through inadequate provision of social services

Homelessness is about more than housing. It is about being denied the right to live with dignity and to participate in your community. It is the most extreme form of social exclusion. Not having a home denies them the opportunity to be who they are, and Irish society is poorer as a result.

To make an impact on ending homelessness the needs of the whole person - income, health, employment, support and civic engagement - will have to be addressed. Each person regardless of income or housing status must have the opportunity to access vital services and access to redress if their needs are not adequately met. We must also ensure that existing and new policy does not directly or indirectly contribute to trapping people in homelessness or put people at risk of homelessness.

All renevant Government policies must be proofed for their impact on homelessness. All Government departments and agencies, with a role in addressing and preventing homelessness, must adopt this.

Government have acknowledged that rights encompass social, economic and cultural rights and obligations and that these should underpin equality of opportunity and policies on access to education, employment, health, housing and social services. However, despite very specific commitments as to how this would be progressed no action has been taken to date.

The MakeRoom campaign calls for the following actions:

• improved mechanisms for poverty proofing and homeless proofing and a real commitment to taking a joined up Government approach to homelessness
• an explicit statement of entitlement to education, employment, health, housing and social services
• accessible systems of redress where agents fail to deliver on identified needs
• mechanisms to monitor access to, and the quality of, services as part of the new homelessness strategy
• ensuring access to primary and seccondary health care services for people who are homeless
• action by the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution to address economic, social and cultural rights
• the creation of minimum standards in relation to food, housing and service delivery in homeless services
• participation of all relevant statutory and voluntary bodies in local and regional homeless forums
• action on the barriers to participation in society of people who are homeless including voting rights, participation in public policy formation, employment rights, access to financial services and participation in the artistic and cultural life of the country