NOVAS broadly welcomes the new Housing For All plan and its commitment to ending homelessness by 2030. Through the delivery of more social and affordable homes, increased delivery of housing generally and a commitment to extending the Housing First Programme nationally, the plan seeks to eradicate homelessness by the end of the decade.

Specific commitments to build more than 300,000 homes by 2030, with particular targets for social and affordable housing as well as cost rental, are essential. If the commitment to deliver 90,000 social homes by 2030 is achieved, it will have a seismic impact on reducing our over-reliance on the private sector to solve the social housing crisis and will provide security of tenure on an unprecedented scale for thousands of low-income households.

NOVAS’ Head of Policy and Communications, Una Burns notes that ‘the scale of social housing is very welcome, particularly relating to one-bed units. Single people spend the longest time homeless because of the lack of small units of move-on accommodation. Increasing this stock is essential in reducing long-term homelessness and an over-reliance on emergency and temporary accommodation. It is absolutely essential that such targets are met. NOVAS look forward to working with government to play its part in achieving the ambitions set out in the plan.’

NOVAS warmly supports the commitment to an inter-departmental and cross-government approach to supporting homeless people, both through the extension of Housing First and also through specific commitments to provide targeted health interventions for people who are homeless with specific consideration to their complex needs.

The plan is ambitious and the targets are high. Examining our annual house building output in recent years, points to the challenges faced by government. The targets must be met. We must move away from a reliance on private rented accommodation to meet social housing demands. We must prevent homelessness and provide security and safety for our vulnerable groups in society.

BA Event Management Year 1 students from IT Tralee are participating in NOVAS’ Sleep-In this Christmas.

The students normally engage in a large variety of volunteering at festival and events throughout the year, as part of their course. However, due to Covid restrictions the students have decided to create their own socially distanced event this year, around the NOVAS Christmas Sleep-In Fundraiser. We are thrilled to have them on board!

The students are going to sleep out at home, in back gardens and living rooms all across the country, while raising money for this great cause over Christmas. Speaking about the sleep in Year 1 Event Management class rep. Elaine Doolan said,

“We are all really looking forward to participating in the NOVAS Christmas Sleep-In event this year, as we believe this a very worthwhile and most needed event to highlight homelessness issues and to fundraise for the homeless community. We appreciate the opportunity that NOVAS has afforded us partake in their Christmas Sleep-In, to help raise vital funds to help people without a permanent roof over their heads. As we are in the middle of a global pandemic and there are not a lot of events out there to volunteer at right now, we decided to create our own Covid compliant event.’

You can follow the students adventures on Instagram using the hashtag #eventmanagementittralee and donate on their I-donate page: https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/11394455_event-management—it-tralee–christmas-sleep-out-for-novas-.html

We are thrilled that Mid-West company AMCS have joined our 2020 Sleep-In. This year the company have developed a Match Campaign for our Sleep-In, so every donation or registration that is made to NOVAS’ Sleep-In this year will be matched by AMCS!! Every €15 registration fee becomes €30 and every donation will also be doubled. We are so grateful for this hugely generous commitment, that helps to make your donation to NOVAS go even further.

Noreen Cantillon, Head of HR with AMCS commenting on the collaboration with NOVAS noted that ‘AMCS is committed to supporting our community, and this is especially important at this time of the year. We recognise that during 2020, in particular, charities who support the most vulnerable in society have been particularly stretched.  We are delighted to partner with NOVAS this Christmas, Novas, like AMCS, has its roots in Limerick. This partnership is inspired by the generosity of our employees, who donate to AMCS charity initiatives throughout the year. AMCS will match employees’ donations to the NOVAS Christmas Toy Appeal and, in addition our entire Christmas Party spend will be donated to the ‘sleep-in’ initiative. We are encouraging our employees to take part in NOVAS charity drives and we have no doubt that the team here and their families will come up with some innovative ways of joining the ‘sleep-in’ initiative on December 18th.’

We would like to take this opportunity to extend a warmest thanks to management and staff of AMCS for their generosity to NOVAS this Christmas.

And remember if you donate to NOVAS’ Sleep-In this year, your donation will be doubled!

We largely welcome the new measures introduced in Budget 2021 relating to housing and homelessness, particularly considering the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the threat of a hard Brexit looming large.

A total of €5.2b has been allocated to the Department of Housing, Gealtacht and Rural Affairs, with a specific capital investment of €500m to facilitate the construction of 9,500 new social housing units during 2021. This is an increase of the previous target of 8,900 units outlined in Rebuilding Ireland. Additional resources to supported the roll-out of affordable housing and cost rental models are also welcome. This budget heralds record levels of investment by the state in the construction of new homes to alleviate the current housing crisis beset by unaffordability and lack of stock in the last decade.

Additional funding has also been allocated to the homeless sector, with particular focus on a winter initiative. Una Burns, Head of Policy and Communications with NOVAS noted that ‘the specific assurance to provide one-bed units is most welcome considering that single individuals comprise more than 50% of the national social housing waiting list and spend very long periods of time living in homeless accommodation. The commitment to addressing this issue is very important.’

Despite some very promising inclusions in the budget, the greatest lacuna relates to renters. No measures were announced to protect renters from soaring costs of rent or from evictions. Considering that we continue to live the grips in of a pandemic and that many people entering homelessness for the first time come from the private rented market, this is an erroneous omission.  Protections for renters is an important preventative measure in combatting homelessness. Furthermore, while the Rebuilding Ireland targets have been revised upwards by 600 units for 2021, we would argue that it needs to be scaled even further.

Overall it is a positive and robust budget in tackling an issue that continues to the plague the country. We look forward to working with the department and the local authorities to play our part in addressing the crisis.

While scant on detail of implementation in parts, the draft Programme for Government published yesterday is broadly welcomed by NOVAS.

A commitment to a Referendum on the Right to Housing is outlined as a key priority and is something that has been long campaigned for by those working in the housing and homeless sector. While not a panacea for the homeless crisis in itself, it does offer a floor of protection for people seeking accommodation and would allow government to introduce measures that are currently prevented by the constitution. The commitment to establish a Housing Commission with a focus on tenure, standards and sustainability is another positive pledge.

A commitment to tackle the number of single homeless people is most welcome. During the Covid-19 pandemic, inroads into reducing family homelessness have been made, but the number of single homeless people accessing temporary accommodation grew. A focus on scaling up Housing First programmes is very important, as too it the provision of appropriate housing to make this happen. The specific commitment to developing more one-bed units is essential to reducing the number of single adults who are homeless and the period of time they are stuck in emergency accommodation.

As a member of the Irish Coalition to End Youth Homelessness, we welcome the pledge to develop a Youth Homeless Strategy.

There are also promising commitments to local authority tenants such as creating a social housing passport that is relevant in local authorities throughout the country as well as a nationwide choice-based letting approach. There is also a focus on reducing the burden on those renting, with mention of indefinite tenure, a cost rental programme and a deposit holding scheme as utilised in many European countries. The extension of rent freezes and a ban on evictions is essential to maintaining people in their accommodation and reducing the number of households becoming homeless.

The draft Programme for Government has many and varied priorities to ‘reducing and preventing’ homelessness and increasing the stock of housing in the country, however it requires more details. How will housing, both that to rent and buy, be made more affordable? And what is affordable? Targets are important to measure our progress and the biggest target of all should be a commitment to end long-term homelessness in the state.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have developed additional ways to support people experiencing homelessness and social marginalisation.

If you are in a position to help, here are some of the ways your donations are spent:

€15 – Play and Activity Pack

School and childcare closures, movement restrictions and paused services have been particularly difficult for children who experience homelessness, especially those living in hotel and B&B accommodation. The  staff of our family services have been busy preparing play and activity packs for these children. The items must be small and easy to store, not too messy and help the children educationally and developmentally. Items include colouring and activity books, crayons and colouring pencils, sensory toys and books.

€40 – Grocery Pack: Many of the usual ways that low income households access food e.g. street outreach, soup kitchen, food banks, have been paused during the pandemic or people cannot attend due to risk of contagion. We are supporting may of the vulnerable households we work with, with grocery packs or food vouchers throughout lockdown. This helps ensure people continue to be nourished and alleviates one worry during this difficult time.

€100 – PPE

PPE is a hugely expensive and unplanned cost in our services. Every interaction our staff and volunteers undertake requires some level of PPE. For example home visits, street outreach, key-working and counselling sessions and daily client interactions in our services all require masks, gloves and sanitizer. Maintaining a 2m distance for less than 15 minutes is not always possible for our staff. Indeed our staff often have to preform CPR, support clients to dress, wash and toilet as well as other intimate personal care activities. A donation of €100 pays for PPE in one of our large accommodation services for all staff for a week, keeping them safe in fulfilling their vital front-line roles.

€250 – Welcome Pack

The pandemic has created opportunities to move many homeless households from emergency accommodation into long-term housing. For example during this period, NOVAS’ family service and housing section are moving 52 families from the Blanchardstown area of Dublin from emergency accommodation into their own homes. Many people, both singles and families, who have experienced homeless have few households items of their own and require support with basic supplies when moving. The supplies vary according to the needs of individual households, but include items such as bed linen, duvets and pillows, crockery and cutlery, towels, white goods and a small amount of furniture. These Welcome Packs have the opportunity to change someone’s life and give them the fresh start they have been dreaming of.