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About Homelessness

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• Rights of Homeless People

What rights do people who are experiencing homelessness have?

People who are experiencing homelessness are entitled to receive the same range of public services as other members of society. These services include health services, income maintenance, training & education and housing.

However, public services are designed around the needs of people who live in conventional houses in community settings. This means the services are often difficult to access for people who are homeless.

For example, most health care services are delivered based on Health Service Executive catchment areas. Someone without a permanent address will have problems accessing those services.

In recognition of these difficulties, a range of dedicated services has been developed to meet the needs of people who are homeless. While these services are necessary, it is also important to ensure that mainstream services respond to the needs of people who are homeless.

The Homeless Agency takes a two-part approach to promoting the rights of people who are homeless.
The Agency works to ensure that:

• special services for homeless people continue to be available, and
• mainstream services are aware of and respond to the needs of people experiencing homelessness.