THE NORTH West Simon Community has written to every councillor and TD in Donegal raising serious concerns about their future if funding lost as a result of the pandemic is not matched. Speaking to the Donegal News, General Manager of North West Simon Community, Noel Daly said they are down €140,000 from the start of the year.

The charity has applied for funding through the Government’s Stability Fund for the voluntary sector and although a decision was due by the end of June they have had no news on whether the application has been successful.

“We’ll have to get very noisy, very quickly if we don’t get an announcement in the next two weeks,” said Mr Daly.

The most recent figures from the Department of Housing state that there were 27 people in Donegal in emergency accommodation managed by the Council between May 25 and 31, 2020 but Mr Daly said this does not reflect the reality of the housing need in the county.

“We know that the Donegal Resettlement and Tenancy Sustainment Service provided by Donegal County Council and Simon Community normally carries a caseload of 18 clients, while St Colmcille Hostel operated by SVP in Letterkenny, has 10 units that normally accommodate up to 24 adults and children at any time,” he said.

“The Homeless statistics do not include the families accommodated by the Donegal Domestic Violence Service (DDVS), where the four units with nine beds accommodate an average of 18 women and children every week. In fact there is currently a dispute between, the Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government, and Tusla, about which agency should pay for the cost of Temporary Emergency Accommodation the DDVS has to arrange when its own beds are full, and another family needs a safe place to stay. DDVS estimate that such events happen at least once every month.”

The official figures do not take into account people who are in need of housing but are staying with relatives or friends.

“It can take between a year to two years to get someone organised and settled into a secure home. They are not counted in the figures,” said Mr Daly. “The government is determined to minimise the perception of homelessness in the county.”

Mr Daly believes that Covid-19 will encourage greater numbers of people who are living with parents or relatives to seek social housing in the coming months which will drive up waiting lists.

“We are going to see more people wanting to move out. The demand for social housing will increase but the housing isn’t available.”

Housing needs assessment

According to the most recent housing needs assessment which was undertaken in June 2019 there was a total of 926 people in need of social housing in Donegal.

The majority of those in need (511) were in unsuitable accommodation because of household circumstances, 226 required separate accommodation, 12 were in emergency accommodation, 15 were in overcrowded accommodation, 22 were in unfit accommodation and 24 people had an unsustainable mortgage.

In June 2019 there were 450 people living in private rented accommodation in Donegal who were in need of social housing, 262 were living with parents and 104 were living with relatives or friends.

“When I first came to Donegal in 2002 to help establish the North West Simon Community at that time there were 28 people considered homeless according to the official figures, 18 adults and ten children,” said Mr Daly.

“The number of beds hasn’t changed or the number of people going into them hasn’t changed in 15 years.  The speed at which houses are being provided is not matching the demand.”

Mr Daly said families are finding it easier to secure accommodation because they are more attractive to rent to but there has been a surge in single people looking for help.Many landlords are not willing to rent to those in receipt of the Housing Assistance Payment  which is a huge challenge. It is also near impossible to get accommodation within the scheme’s limits as rents are more expensive than what is being offered. Although rents were frozen during lockdown the charity is now seeing instances of landlords putting up rents on an ad hoc basis.

Mr Daly said it is essential there is more services to help people before they get into an emergency situation. Through housing clinics they sit down with individuals and talk them through what is happening in their lives to help find a solution.

“If they have a poor standard of education and they are not very confident interpreting paperwork in the housing application it can frighten them away. A lot of people are frightened to go looking for services because their perception is that they will be turned down. A lot of the time people are entitled to huge amounts of support but they don’t know how to access it.”

The charity is also calling for a social housing passport to be established to allow local authority tenants and those on the waiting list to move from one area of the country to another and still be eligible for housing. At the moment you have to be on a housing list in one county for two years. Mr Daly said the new government also needs to follow through on commitments made to mental health services especially promises of a youth homeless strategy. They are also calling for targets and a timeframe of funding for homeless services to be published.