Accommodation / Homelessness

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 Key Goals

1. Prevent rough sleeping.
2. Ensure the service user’s current accommodation is appropriate and stable.
3. Identify any barriers to accessing and maintaining housing.
4. Identify appropriate housing for the service user.
5. Work towards accessing appropriate housing with any supports required. 
    

Overview

Homelessness is a resolvable issue. No person should need to sleep rough. A person who experiences homelessness should spend no more than six months in temporary accommodation and, within this timeframe, they should be able to identify, and begin to access, long-term housing options.¹ 

This has not been the experience of many people for a number of reasons including a lack of move-on options and the fragmented organisation of homeless services. People with a range of care needs in particular have experienced extended periods in homeless services.

The role of the case manager is to support the service user as they progress along a continuum of three main stages:

Stage A: Rough Sleeping/no accommodation for tonight

Stage B: Temporary accommodation

Stage C: Long-term housing options

These stages are outlined in Figure 1.

This section of the guidebook provides the case manager with the information required to support a service user in each of these stages and, in particular, to support the transition to long-term housing, which is appropriate to their specific needs.

It also provides an overview of homelessness, including definitions, causes and pathways out of homelessness.

Finally, it provides a brief overview of plans for homeless services, titled ‘Pathway to Home’ model, of homeless housing and support provision.

¹(Government Policy: The Way Home, along with Dublin regional action plan: A Key to the Door and more recently Pathway to Home clearly state these two aims).