Housing FirstEnding Homelessness in Rural Ireland?

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

30 September 2013 | Athlone Institute of Technology

This model has its origins in the Pathways to Housing organisation in New York. This organisation was founded by Dr Sam Tsemberis and aims to support people with chronic mental health and addiction issues into homes of their own. This is a radical difference from the ‘traditional’ model of homeless service provision where the service user had to demonstrate that they were able to meet specific criteria prior to being offered a home of their own.

In contrast, Housing First works from the premise that ‘housing is a right’; that regardless of the issues a service user is dealing with, s/he should be offered a home and also offered a range of supports appropriate to her/his needs. The major difference from the ‘traditional model’ is that engaging with supports is not a pre-condition of being offered a home of ones own. There is also a comprehensive body of research that has proven this model to be extremely effective in helping people move out of homelessness.

Service providers and the relevant state agencies will face challenges if they wish to implement a Housing First model. Service providers will need to continue to believe in the potential of the service user to make positive choices in relation to their own lives and in their capacity to live in a home of their own. Service providers may also need to re-orientate services and reorganise them with a focus on ending homelessness as opposed to sustaining homelessness by keeping service users longer than is necessary in homeless services.

State agencies, most notably the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the HSE and local authorities will need to face the challenge of ensuring that sufficient resources are allocated to services that aim to end homelessness and to organisations that are embracing the Housing First model and housing-led approaches.

This conference will have a particular focus on exploring the relevance of the Housing First model to rural Ireland and to regions like the Midlands.

Delegates at the Housing First conference will: ` Gain a solid introduction to the Housing First model as practiced in

the Pathways to Housing organisation in New York. ` Have an introduction to the research that argues for the relevance of

this model in Ireland. ` Examine an insight into why the model is relevant in rural Ireland and

in particular to a region like the Midlands. ` Explore the challenges of implementing the Housing First model.

This will be done through inputs from the expert panel and through opportunities for questioning the guest speakers in an open forum.

WHAT IS THE HOUSING FIRST MODEL?

Why attend this conference?

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Chair: Dr Marian FitzgibbonHead of School of Humanities, AIT

10.00Official openingMinister Jan O’SullivanMinister for Housing and Planning

10.15Housing First: Ending Homelessness and Supporting RecoveryDr Sam TsemberisCEO, Pathways to Housing

11.30Coffee

12:00Challenges in Implementing Housing First in IrelandDr Eoin O’SullivanHead of the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College, Dublin

13.00Lunch

14:00Homelessness and Housing – Moving from Policy to ActionFrank MurtaghPrincipal, Murtagh & Partners

14.45Panel and floor discussionsKieran Butler, Westmeath County CouncilMaurice Hoare, HSE Mid-WestTony O’Riordan, Midlands Simon CommunityNiamh Randall, Simon CommunityGary Ryan, Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government

15.45Summing up and conclusionDr Marian FitzgibbonHead of School of Humanities, AIT

16.00Finish

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

@HousingFirstAIT/housingfirstconference

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There is no charge to attend the Housing First conference. However, places are limited so early booking is advised. Visit www.ait.ie/midlandssimon to book your place today.

In October 2012, Athlone Institute of Technology and the Midlands Simon Community signed a memorandum of agreement which builds on the successful relationship between both organisations.

This jointly organised conference is one of the outputs of the agreement.

Further areas of collaboration will see student and academic research projects

in areas related to homelessness.The agreement also provides for a graduate programme which is open to social care degree holders from AIT.

The development of a joint research agenda will see significant collaboration at undergraduate and postgraduate level between AIT and the Midlands Simon Community over the next five years. With the collaboration of the Midlands Simon Community,

supervisors and students will have access and assistance to conduct research that will build an evidence base on homelessness and care provision.

The research will also contribute to evaluating the unique approaches being developed on the ground, and add to the body of work on social policy implementation in Ireland.

Keynote SpeaKerS

Sam TsemberisDr Sam Tsemberis is a clinical-community psychologist and is the CEO of Pathways to Housing, an organisation he founded in 1992. At Pathways he developed the Housing First model; this evidence-based, person-centred programme is highly effective in ending homelessness for people with mental health and addiction problems and other complex needs. Pathways currently operates programs in New

York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Vermont and provides consultation and technical assistance to agencies throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Dr Tsemberis is principal investigator for several federally funded studies of homelessness, mental illness, and addiction, and has published numerous articles and book chapters on these topics including Housing First (Hazelden Publishers). Dr Tsemberis has received many awards including the prestigious Macy Award for individual achievement in the battle to end homelessness from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. He received a PhD in clinical psychology from New York University, and currently is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry of the Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Toronto.

Eoin O’SullivanDr Eoin O’Sullivan is Associate Professor of Social Policy and Head of the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College, Dublin and Fellow of Trinity College. He is a member of the European Observatory on Homelessness and lead editor of the European Journal of Homelessness. Recent collaborative books include Patients, Prisoners and Penitents: Coercive Confinement in Post-

Independence Ireland (2012), Homelessness and Homeless Policies in Europe: Lessons From Research (2010) and Young People’s Homeless Pathways (2008).

Frank MurtaghFrank Murtagh is Principal of a long-established practice, Murtagh & Partners, Social and Economic Consultants. M & P specializes in strategic planning, evaluation, reviews and organizational development particularly in the Social Inclusion area, concentrating on service outcomes and how to achieve them. With an academic background in economics, he has prepared a number of strategic development

strategies and assignments for statutory and voluntary agencies and organisations in the community social and economic regeneration field, both urban and rural, throughout Ireland including inner city Dublin. An active volunteer with a number of organisations, he is a founder and current Board member of the North City Business Centre, an enterprise agency on the interface in North Belfast, and a founder member of the Ashton Development Centre Ltd., both community-based economic regeneration bodies.

Jan O’SullivanJan O’Sullivan TD is Minister for Housing and Planning at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. She was elected to Seanad Éireann in 1993 and was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1998.

Marian FitzgibbonDr Marian Fitzgibbon is Head of the School of Humanities at AIT. She has worked in the education and arts sectors and is the author of a book on innovative management in the arts sector and has edited a cultural management handbook.

panel

Kieran ButlerKieran has worked as Housing Welfare Officer with Westmeath County Council since 1999. He holds a master’s degree in social science and a higher diploma in mediation. He has played a significant role in coordinating inter-agency responses to homelessness in the Midlands region as Westmeath County Council is the lead local authority within the Midlands Regional Joint Homeless Consultative Forum (MRJCHF).

Maurice HoareMaurice Hoare has been Regional Coordinator of Homeless and Ethnic Minority Services in HSE Mid-West since 2002 and is a former Supt Community Welfare Office. He is a member of both the Mid-West Regional Homeless Forum and the Regional Management Group and is currently Chairperson of the HSE National Homeless Advisory Governance Group and also represents the HSE on the Cross Department Team on Homelessness.

Tony O’RiordanTony O’Riordan has twenty years’ experience working in the community and voluntary sector. He has been CEO of the Midlands Simon Community since 2004, during which time Midlands Simon Community has developed a range of innovative services across the Midlands in the area of crisis intervention and providing long-term sustainable solutions to homelessness. Tony holds a degree in sociology from NUI Maynooth, a higher diploma in counselling from UCC, and a master’s in management from DCU.

Niamh RandallNiamh Randall is Head of Policy and Communications with responsibility for managing national campaigning and communications activities for the Simon Communities in Ireland. Niamh has worked in the area of homelessness and drug use for over thirteen years and holds a primary degree in social policy and sociology from UCD and a master’s of science in drug and alcohol policy from Trinity College, Dublin.

Gary RyanGary Ryan is Assistant Principal in the Social Inclusion Section of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. He has worked in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government for over 12 years primarily in the Housing and Planning Division but also in the Department’s Press Office. He is currently responsible for operation of the Homeless Unit. He has a BA in geography and sociology and an MA in town planning.

CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

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