Former Lord Mayor Hazel Chu praises revival of her homelessness taskforce
The new Lord Mayor has committed to re-establishing a defunct taskforce focused on the "elimination" of homelessness in Dublin .
Following his election as the 359th Lord Mayor , Fianna Fáil Councillor Daryl Barron outlined a plan to revive a prior homeless subcommittee to “drive strict standardisation, budget oversight and uptight reviews on the council’s housing allocation scheme”. This taskforce was originally established by former Lord Mayor and Green Party Cllr Hazel Chu during her term from 2020 to 2021.
“I'm absolutely delighted to hear the new Lord Mayor say that he will re-establish it because it worked very well at the time,” Cllr Chu told Dublin Live. She said this cross-party committee saw representatives come together to look at policies around homelessness and allowed for representatives to engage directly with management and the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive.
The taskforce helped foster “better connections” between different bodies according to Cllr Chu, who highlighted their work with the HSE and Tusla. “I’m hoping it will do that again this time,” she said.
“There’s so much red tape and bureaucracy when it comes to local government and central government. To cut that back and create groups that work better together is great. I really welcome the Lord Mayor saying he will treat this as a priority and I’m hoping the Minister sees that as a priority we need to drive forward.”
While active, the taskforce spoke with experts from Dublin Simon, Alice Leahy Trust, The Mendicity Institution, Ana Liffey Drug Project, Threshold, Focus Ireland Youth Housing First Waterford, HSE, Tusla and service users. Influenced by the research and data collected, it sought additional funding for outreach programmes, greater investment in health supports for homeless people, a youth homeless strategy, and more transparency around notice to quits.
Cllr Chu said it was always her ambition to see the taskforce continue beyond her term as Lord Mayor but this never came to fruition. Now that it’s being revived she hopes DCC can “push the dial” when it comes to homelessness and sees this as a positive step in the right direction. “You want policies in place that last longer than just the term of a councillor or mayor,” she said.
“To hear Lord Mayor Barron speak about the urgency of homelessness and housing is really important because when you are the First Citizen it gives it weight. The fact that he’s very firm on it is a good thing and I’m hoping he can push the Minister on it.”
In his inaugural address, Lord Mayor Barron outlined tackling dereliction, vacancy and homelessness as a key pillar of his ‘Our Dublin’ agenda . He described “boarded up buildings lining our streets while families desperately search for homes” as “both a moral and economic failure”.
“This September, Dublin City Council will pioneer a total step change in urban renewal by establishing a dedicated Special Purpose Vehicle. This will be tasked with aggressively targeting, acquiring and remedying derelict and vacant sites across our city,” he said.
“We will embed the SPV directly into council policy to unlock the frozen land banks. This is a once in a generation project that will transform our city. But we must go further to resolve the broader housing crisis. This council will aggressively expand the direct building of public and affordable housing projects on council-owned sites.
“We will maximise the use of existing structures, conversing spaces above shops, transforming redundant office blocks and reclaiming derelict sites through adaptive reuse for housing, arts and community space.
“Furthermore, we are increasing the funding for housing maintenance to systematically address poor living conditions in existing council homes , putting a strict charter in place for timely maintenance work.”
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