Homelessness, Ageing and Dying 11 transitional accommodation) or sleeping rough. The largest number of people who were homeless was in the Dublin region (62.4%), while 92% (59 individuals) of people sleeping rough were also in the Dublin region. Irish local authorities also make an assessment of the numbers in housing need in their area, including people who are homeless, every three years as part of the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government’s Assessment of Housing Need. The most recent assessment of need was undertaken on the 31st March 201111 where 98,318 households were found to be in need of social housing. Older persons (2,266 households) and homeless households (2,348 households) account for just over 2 per cent of need respectively. The number of households identified as homeless in the 2011 Assessment was significantly higher than the 2008 Assessment (2,348 in 2011 compared with 1,394 in 2008). Some of the differences in the 2011 and 2008 figures relate to changes in the methodology used to collect the 2011 data. Notwithstanding the significant increase in the number of households identified as homeless between the 2008 and 2011 assessments, the 2011 housing assessment figures for homelessness continue to raise questions given that the 2008 Homeless Agency ‘Counted In’ survey of homelessness found 2,144 households using homeless services in the Dublin region alone, while similar ‘Counted In’ studies in Cork, Limerick and Galway cities in 2008 found 767 households that were homeless. The key difference between the ‘Counted In’ Survey and the Housing Needs Assessment is that the ‘Counted In’ survey specifically focuses on counting the number of persons using homeless services at a particular point in time at a particular location, while the Housing Needs Assessment includes only those on the local authority housing list thereby excluding those in transitional housing, residential supported units etc. The discrepancy between the Housing Need Assessment figures and the ‘Counted In’ figures and experiences of other bodies and organisations that are seeing a growing demand for services would appear to stem back to the way homelessness is defined and the methodologies used. Official statistics for example exclude certain groups of people (e.g. those not on the local authority housing lists, people using emergency accommodation, transitional accommodation, residential supported units, etc.). It is also the case that people who are homeless move from place to place or indeed move in and out of homelessness making it difficult to get an accurate point in time count of the total homeless population.12 The majority of people who are homeless are single adults - the Homeless Agency’s 2008 survey found that in Dublin alone there were 1,439 single people who are homeless - the majority of whom are men, who tend to be homeless for longer periods than women. There are a smaller number of homeless families (The Homeless Agency’s 2008 survey found that in Dublin there were 249 adults with children under 18 years- 576 children in total). The majority of these families are housed in emergency bed & breakfast accommodation. The 2008 ‘Counted In’ survey of people who are homeless found the average age of homeless service users in Dublin was 39 (the average age of the 2011 Simon National Health Snapshot13 female participants was 40 and male participants was 44.5 years) while more than a fifth of adults attending homeless services were aged 50 or over (24% of female participants in the Simon National Health Snapshot 2011 were aged over 50 (with 4.1% of these aged over 65) while 37% of the male respondents were aged over 50 (with 6.7 % of these aged over 65). No similar figures are available officially, making it difficult to quantify and understand the extent and nature of homelessness that exists across the country. 11 Housing Agency (2011) Housing Needs Assessment 2011 12 www.focusireland.ie/index.php/press-release-archive/2009/210-17th-august-2009housing-needs-assessment-underestimates- homelessness 13 Simon Communities of Ireland (2011) Simon National Health Snapshot - 2011
Homelessness, Ageing and Dying
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