DRHE says errors in bed booking system did not lead to anyone being refused homeless accommodation

Sixty-four percent of single adults in homeless accommodation in Dublin as of September were in hostels run by private companies, according to the director of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) Mary Hayes.

Up to August, those private hostels had their own booking system for beds, parallel to the DRHE’s own booking system, PASS.

Human errors in the transfer of data between those two systems are why single homeless people in the Dublin region have been overcounted for years, it seems.

At least 308 people who were booked into hostels according to the DRHE’s system had actually, according to the private-hostel system, already left their beds, said a spokesperson for the DRHE in October.

But were there other ripple effects from these errors?

In the past, people have sometimes complained about being told by DRHE staff that they were booked into private hostels, but then when they showed up there, being told there was no bed for them, according to the CEO of one day centre for homeless people.

The DRHE denies that the error would have had effects like this. “Nobody was refused accommodation as a result of the error,” said a spokesperson for the DRHE in October.

It has asked Michelle Norris, professor of social policy at UCD, to carry out an investigation into the errors – and her report is expected soon, a DRHE spokesperson said on 7 December.

Merging systems

In September, DRHE director Mary Hayes wrote to the Department of Housing to outline the issue.

Last year, DRHE had updated its PASS booking system so that private hostels could use the same portal to book residents in and out, while limiting their access to some information, she said.

Before this, private facilities had their own booking system and DRHE staff copied over the booking details themselves onto the PASS system, she said.

So, it seems, there was an element of human error, when staff at the DRHE moved the booking details over.

Hayes pointed out that the errors took place in the context of thousands of bookings.

She said she had asked Norris, the UCD professor, to “review with objectivity and rigour how the error occurred and that we have effectively reduced the likelihood of any repeat errors”.

That report was expected in October, she said. On 7 December, a spokesperson for the DRHE said it is now almost done.

“We are currently awaiting a final report on the findings,” they said.

How big a problem?

The errors meant that the data for the number of single homeless people in Dublin was wrong by at least 308 people, according to the DRHE press release issued in September.

That was around 8 percent of the single homeless population in Dublin, which was 3,966 people in August 2023, according to data compiled by the Department of Housing.

Hayes said in one email to the Department of Housing that the private hostels’ “standalone booking portal” had been in use since March 2021, and some errors could date back that far.

No hostel was overpaid because DRHE funding for them is not dependent on beds being occupied, said Hayes by email.

Were homeless people affected?

People experiencing homelessness regularly slip in and out of homeless services. They may turn for a while to sofa surfing, or kip with friends or relatives.

In summer, people may prefer tents, returning to hostels when the weather worsens later in the year.

If someone was marked on PASS as booked into a private hostel, even though they’d already left it, and that person then tried to get a bed in a hostel again, it would appear to DRHE staff that they already had a bed.

The DRHE spokesperson said this didn’t impact people seeking accommodation at all. But some people have had unexplained difficulties trying to get beds.

In October 2022, Aleksandrs Gutorovics – who had been sleeping in a tent – got the run around between the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) freephone service and a private hostel.

Gutorovics said he was told by the DRHE central placement service staff that he was booked into a private hostel. But when he went to the hostel, staff told him they didn’t have his booking and so couldn’t accommodate him.

That happened repeatedly. In the end, he gave up and went back to his tent.

The entire interaction made his situation worse, he said at the time. “When you are homeless you are fragile anyway.”

Louisa Santoro, CEO of the Mendicity Institution, a homeless day centre, says that what happened to Gutorovics also happened to other service users. “This happens regularly enough.”