Statement on Homelessness Crisis

Fred McBride, Tusla’s Chief Operations Officer says: “Tusla is concerned about the impact of the housing crisis on children and families. The Agency is working with relevant services in order to maximise the supports available to families and to ensure that all professionals are aware of their obligation to be vigilant in relation to child protection.

“As parents remain their children’s primary carer, our role is to support them in the same way that it supports any family where child welfare issues are identified; to provide family support and to assess any child protection concern that arise.”

Current initiatives include:

• A Homelessness Liaison Officer has recently been appointed to lead Tusla’s engagement with other services, particularly in relation to child protection.
• Links with Dublin Region Homeless Executive around access for children and families to Family Resource Centres.
• Guidance for Home School Community Liaison and School Completion staff on helping children and families experiencing homelessness to maintain regular school attendance.
• School Completion Programmes have been asked to prioritise homeless children for services such as breakfast and homework clubs.

Eibhlin Byrne, Director of EWS adds: “It is critical that children are supported in education while their family undergoes the trauma of being homeless.  As adults deal with the immediate worries, children need to be offered as much stability as possible in an environment that is as familiar to them as possible. It is important that children are supported in their current school placement where possible and EWS is working with parents to overcome impediments to attendance, a key difficulty being transport.”

ENDS