Tipperary council defends its service agreement with financially embattled homeless charity

Tipperary County Council’s housing chief defended the use of the Peter McVerry Trust to manage council owned homeless accommodation in the county when the local authority’s association with the financially embattled charity was criticised at a meeting of its elected members.

Fine Gael Cllr Michael Fitzgerald voiced concern at the council’s relationship with the homeless charity at the October monthly meeting of the local authority’s councillors in Clonmel.

The Peter McVerry Trust, founded by Jesuit homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry, is currently being investigated by the Charities Regulator and Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority due to the financial crisis it’s facing arising from cash flow and debt issues.

It’s understood the charity’s financial problems are due to management issues and not having proper structures in place as it grew in size in recent years to meet increased demand for homeless accommodation services.

Cllr Fitzgerald specifically queried at the council meeting why a new council built house in Bansha designated to the Peter McVerry Trust to allocate to tenants was still empty six months after the other 13 homes in the new estate were allocated tenants by the council.

He was informed by the Council’s Director of Housing Sinead Carr that the movement of tenants into the property was imminent from the council's social housing list.

Cllr Fitzgerald confessed he had been a “little bit shocked” to learn in June that one of the homes in the new estate were to be allocated by the PMV Trust and his concern grew when the charity’s new CEO resigned over the financial difficulties at the organisation.

The councillor referred to Peter McVerry Trust CEO Francis Doherty’s reignation letter stating that he felt the board of the charity had made his position “untenable” due to “repeated and long standing governance failings” over a number of years. In view of this situation, Cllr Fitzgerald said he was not happy with the council’s association with the PMV Trust.

The council had to look at its dealings with this organisation at this point and time due to the financial questions hanging over it and should demand this house in Bansha back from the charity.

The Golden councillor also expressed his view that the council’s own Housing Section staff working with homeless people were well able to look after the homeless situation in the county without the Peter McVerry Trust or any other trust getting involved.

Sinn Féin Cllr David Dunne, Fine Gael Cllr John Crosse and Cllr Roger Kennedy of Fianna Fáil supported his comments and call for the the Trust to hand back the keys of the Bansha house to the county council.

Cllr Kennedy asked council management for information about the occupancy of council’s other Own Front Door housing units for homeless people that are managed by the Peter McVerry Trust

Like Cllr Fitzgerald, he wondered was it time for the council to take over the running of these houses.

The Council's Director of Housing Sinead Carr explained to Cllr Fitzgerald that the initial delay in allocating tenants to the Own Front Door house in Bansha was due to a staff vacancy in the council during the summer.

This resulted in a delay in the house being moved across to the Peter McVerry Trust.

There was a further delay in the Peter McVerry Trust furnishing the property, which she presumed was due to the difficulties the charity was in at the moment.

The council had stepped in and furnished the property and it has been allocated to tenants. Their moving into the house was imminent.

She said a number of the council’s houses were managed by the Peter McVerry Trust and she found the Trust’s staff, who worked with people living in these homes, were “top class”.

Ms Carr stressed the council would have difficulty managing more difficult and challenging housing clients without the assistance of homeless charities like the Peter McVerry Trust and Focus Ireland.

She clarified that the council didn’t “give away” houses to Approved Housing Bodies (AHB) like these.

Where the council had homes identified for dealing with homelessness, it entered into a “service level agreement” with charities and AHBs including Simon, Novas and the Peter McVerry Trust to manage them.

She said she would prefer if these homes were managed by the council’s own staff but she didn’t have that option and noted that a lot of people housed in homes under the management of these charities required “significant and intensive supports”.

In relation to Cllr Kennedy’s query about other Own Front Door housing units managed by the Trust, she said they were all occupied at the moment.