Dublin City Council to restrict which care leavers can get prioritised for social housing

After an apparent spike in people claiming priority to get a social home quicker on the basis that they’re care leavers, and amidst a shortage of one-beds to put them in, the council is moving to make changes.

Dublin City Council’s housing committee agreed on 24 March to restrict which care leavers are prioritised for social homes – tightening the criteria, council managers say, to prioritise those most at risk of homelessness.

The new criteria also restrict priority for social housing to young people coming from residential care, rather than those coming from foster care, and stipulate that the young person must be engaging in Tusla’s aftercare service.

Wayne Stanley, CEO of the charity Empowering People In Care, says all young people leaving state care should be prioritised for social housing to stop the flow of young people directly from the care of the state into homelessness.

“Curtailing of eligibility by DCC for care leavers is a backward step but we have to acknowledge that DCC has been the most progressive local authority in the area of allocations to care leavers,” Stanley says.

A Dublin City Council spokesperson said the proposed changes would “ensure that care leavers who are most at risk of homelessness can apply for priority housing status based on an agreed set of criteria”.

The full council is expected to vote on the new criteria on Monday 7 April.

Care leaver’s priority

It can take many years on the social housing list to get a home, but people who get priority status get housed faster.

The priority list includes medical priority  – that is, individuals or families with disabilities and other medical issues that can be improved by re-housing – older people at risk of homelessness, and other vulnerable groups

If too many people joined the priority list, though, then that waiting time would increase, and the priority status wouldn’t be effective.

In 2017, Green Party Councillor Patrick Costello pushed for care leavers to be prioritised for social housing when they turned 18.

The next year, Dublin City Council introduced changes to its rules and introduced a general priority category for care leavers.

“Dublin City Council recognises that young people leaving state care are particularly vulnerable and some are at risk of becoming homeless if no other accommodation is available to them,” says the council spokesperson.

Young people leaving state care are very vulnerable to becoming homeless, Green Party Councillor Donna Cooney said at the housing committee meeting on 24 March.

“Obviously they are leaving care and they haven’t got the same support network that other young people have,” Cooney said.

The number of applications for care-leaver priority spiked last year, according to Dublin City Council.

The council didn’t directly answer a question as to how many applications for priority it received from care leavers in 2024.

But there are now 40 people with priority based on care leaver status waiting to be allocated social homes, Dublin City Council CEO Richard Shakespeare said in response to questions from Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan.

The council put another 50 applications for priority on hold while it reviewed its systems, Shakespeare wrote.

None of those people whose applications for priority were put on hold missed out on a home during that time, since they are in the queue behind the 40 others, he wrote.

Of those 50 people, applications from 42 are still frozen though, Shakespeare wrote. Another three got homes because they reached the top of the social housing list even without priority, and five were deemed not to be eligible for social housing, he wrote.

Research by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive in 2023 found that a fifth of the 18- and 19-year-olds who were homeless in the Dublin region cited leaving care as the reason, says Stanley, CEO of Empowering People In Care.

“Some care-experienced young people may not have the social and familial network of their peers to prevent homelessness as they transition out of care,” he says.

What was the problem?

Dublin City Council has housed 174 care leavers since 2019, says the council spokesperson.

“While this is a success, the allocations section is flagging a clear risk that we will no longer be prioritising the applicants who already are, or at serious risk of becoming homeless, after leaving state care,” says Shakespeare’s response.

So a change is needed. At the housing committee meeting on 24 March, senior executive officer Bevin Herbert outlined the changes the council thinks need to be made, in a presentation.

Herbert said that at the same time as it received more applications than expected, the council was also getting fewer homes, specifically for care leavers.

In 2023 and 2024 combined, the council got four new homes for care leavers through the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS).

Remember, there are 40 people with care leaver priority waiting for homes, and another 42 people who’ve applied for care leaver priority.

Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor who flagged the issue of applications being frozen in January, asked if the people who applied last year will have their applications processed quickly and if the priority status will be backdated.

The priority status would be backdated, said Herbert. And she seemed to indicate that all of those that were frozen, would be granted priority.

“The 42 applications in waiting, I’ve gone through them myself, and they all meet the criteria, so we will be ready to go with them once the amendment is approved,” she said.

Potential gaps in aftercare

The council’s proposed new system for care leaver priority would require social workers who support young care leavers, through Tusla’s aftercare programme to write a report.

Care leavers are entitled to an aftercare worker from the age of 18 until they are 21 or 23 if they are still in education.  

That could be an issue, said Mike Allen, director of advocacy with Focus Ireland at the housing committee meeting, because Tusla has a shortage of social workers.

“If the thing is structured in that way, there would be a risk that you wouldn’t be able to proceed in a timely manner because of problems in Tusla,” Allen said.

Herbert said Tulsa’s aftercare steering committee agreed that the social workers will provide a report, she said. “So we are happy with that.”

It is not clear if all young people leaving care are linked in with Tusla’s aftercare service, however.

Not all care leavers want to engage with Tusla’s aftercare service, and, according to a 2021 Tusla aftercare survey, some think they are only entitled to access the service if they are still in education.

“I was led to believe if I didn’t want to go into third-level education straight away then I wouldn’t receive any support,” said one care leaver in the survey.

Of respondents to that survey, 64 percent said they had a good experience with aftercare, but 25 percent said they were unhappy with the service – and one issue raised by the care leavers was staffing shortages.

Excluding foster care

Dublin City Council didn’t respond directly to a query as to why the proposed new criteria would exclude care leavers who are at risk of homelessness but coming from foster care.

A lot of care leavers who wind up in homeless services came from residential care rather than foster care, says Allen, because most young people in foster care can remain living in their foster families after 18.

But some could slip through the cracks. “That is a potential gap,” Allen says. They can still apply for priority for social housing under exceptional social grounds, he says.

So says the council spokesperson. “Any care leaver that does not meet this criteria may apply for priority under Exceptional Social Grounds,” she says.

New national guidelines

Most councils in Ireland don’t have a clear system for prioritising care leavers for social homes, says Allen, so Dublin City Council’s proposed criteria should be rolled out in other council areas too, he says.

“I think it will make a difference for the people who are at the biggest risk of homelessness,” Allen said by phone on Friday.

Spokespeople for the other three Dublin councils said they don’t have a specific priority for young people leaving care, but that if they have “particularly vulnerable circumstances” or “exceptional circumstances” they can apply for welfare priority.

This would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

“Young people leaving state care, who are eligible for social housing supports with the council and are engaging with aftercare services, may be eligible for consideration for welfare priority,” says a spokesperson for Fingal County Council.

A spokesperson for South Dublin County Council said similar. “Young people leaving state care, who are in particularly vulnerable circumstances may be eligible for consideration for welfare priority under our Allocation Scheme,” she said.

And a spokesperson for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council said that care leavers who are eligible for social housing supports, and are engaged with aftercare services, “may be considered for priority in exceptional circumstances if they are at risk of homelessness”.

The Department of Housing is working on updating its guidance on care leavers and social housing, and it expects to issue that in the coming weeks, says a spokesperson.

“Consultations on the revised draft are underway,” the spokesperson said. “The original consultation deadline was extended to allow stakeholders more time to provide feedback.”