Press Release: Friday 10 January 2025
Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy announces €1.5 million funding to provide health supports for an additional 265 Housing First tenancies
The Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy Colm Burke TD has today announced an additional €1.5 million for homeless health services under Budget 2025.
The funding will facilitate the establishment of 265 new Housing First tenancies in 2025. The Housing First programme is a vital measure in tackling long-term homelessness among people with complex health needs, by providing them with stable tenancies as well as health and social supports. Funding in 2025 will support the more than 1,000 existing tenancies and will allow for the expansion of the programme to close to 1,300 tenancies, as set out in the Housing First National Implementation Plan 2022-2026.
The funding allocation will also facilitate:
- Recruitment of additional clinical and support staff to meet growing demand and expansion into rural areas.
- Improved access to dual diagnosis services for managing co-occurring mental health and substance abuse issues.
- Improved access to psychology and occupational therapy.
- The establishment of streamlined referral pathways to improve the coordination of care.
- Continued implementation of the National Housing First Directorate’s Peer Involvement Toolkit, which aims to strengthen the role of peer workers in delivering the programme.
Minister Burke said:
“This funding reflects our commitment to a ‘housing-led’ approach that provides vulnerable people with a stable tenancy and an important foundation upon which they can begin to address their needs with the support of a multidisciplinary team.
“Having met some of the inspirational peer workers involved in Housing First, I’m particularly delighted that this funding will support the implementation of the National Housing First Directorate’s Peer Involvement Toolkit. They are a shining example of how incorporating lived experience into service delivery can greatly enhance a programme’s effectiveness.
“As reflected in the recent EU Commission Peer Review, the Housing First programme is critical in supporting people to overcome their challenges and addictions. It also has far-reaching positive implications, reconnecting families, supporting increased employment, reduced Emergency Department presentations, and increased community participation.
“The Peer Review also highlighted the importance of multi-agency cooperation in delivering effective Housing First programmes, and in this regard I want to commend the very impactful partnership between the Health Service Executive, NGOs and agencies and authorities for their work on Housing First.”
