Essay On Homelessness In Ireland

Homeless services in Ireland have changed quite significantly over the past few years and there has been more of a public focus and public outcry for more resources to be put into the housing sector to get more people off the street. People would generally see homelessness as living on the streets, however both the FEANTAS and the 1988 Housing Act have looked to create a more comprehensive definition of homelessness. The European federation that works with homelessness is FEANTAS and they have created a typology in ETHOS which shows that homelessness is not just something that happens out of nowhere but is a process that can include a variety of living situations which can equate to being homeless, this includes: “rooflessness (without a shelter

In 2000, the Irish Government recognised that there was a big homelessness issue and implemented this strategy to help combat it. Before this, there was no clear cut idea of who was responsible for the homeless and this act forced the local governments and health boards to work with the voluntary bodies, who were helping the homeless. This strategy worked at having homelessness services on county levels and working to have local authorities take responsibility for having enough emergency accommodation. They also wanted to increase homeless services in Ireland and have more homeless accommodation and different types of homeless accommodation, so they could free up hostel spaces. It also made the health boards look after the health care and needs of the homeless. John Curry (2011) looks at the Homeless Agency that was set up under the Integrated Strategy. This was used to plan and coordinate services in Dublin as the largest group of homeless people was in Dublin. According to Curry (2011) in a 2006 review, fifteen of twenty four of the strategies from the Integrated Strategy were thought to have “been fully or significantly progressed.” It believed that homelessness policy had improved greatly from this in an array of fields and the Homelessness agency had helped combat homeliness in Dublin greatly. Curry shows that the