The Housing First Programme is getting people off the streets, homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry has said. 

Speaking at the Aontú Ard Fheis on Saturday, Fr McVerry said: “The Housing First model, takes as I say, people straight away and gives them housing. 

“It works. 80-90% of those we house under the Housing First [programme] maintain their accommodation after 12 months or 24 months.” 

The Peter McVerry Trust began working on the scheme in 2011 and in 2020 delivered 61% of the services provided for in the National Housing First Implementation Plan.

Housing First gives rough sleepers or the long-term homeless access to secure accommodation, as well as support services to help keep them off the streets. The support is not time limited and even if a tenancy fails, the programme will help the individual find another. 

Between 2014 and 2019, those who used the Housing First programme had an 86.8% tenancy sustainment rate and the scheme is to be expanded by an additional 1,200 units over the next five years.

Fundamental right

Fr McVerry believes that housing is a fundamental human right and that successive Governments have not prioritised it enough: 

“If you don’t have adequate housing, other human rights become unattainable. Such as the right to adequate food, the right to access education or work. 

“Your health is going to deteriorate, so the other basic rights are dependent on having a stable place in which to live.” 

According to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s latest figures, there were 6,023 homeless people in the Republic of Ireland in August this year - over two thirds of whom were in Dublin. 

The figures represented a slight rise on the previous month’s figures, which found there were 6,003 homeless people in July this year. 

Main image: A homeless man holds a sign. Picture by: Yui Mok/PA Archive/PA Images