There are thousands of households on the social housing list with a Traveller-specific accommodation need!

Key issues affecting the Traveller community;

Discrimination and issues with the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme contributed to a high proportion of Travellers living in homeless emergency accommodation

A 2018 report from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission found Travellers to be 22 times more likely than any other group to be discriminated against in the private rental sector.

Data from 2018 for Dublin city and county recorded 504 homeless Travellers in emergency accommodation in October 2018, including 100 families with children – this represented 9% of all homeless families in Dublin.

“Focus Ireland policy coordinator Rosemary Hennigan said the Traveller community was “over-represented” in emergency homeless accommodation:”

What is the Traveller Accommodation act 1998? 

The Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 requires each local authority, following a consultation process, to prepare, adopt and implement 5 year rolling accommodation programmes to meet the existing and projected accommodation needs of Travellers in their local areas.

How to qualify;

Accommodation for Travellers is provided across a range of options, and it is open to Travellers to opt for any form of accommodation.

These include:

• Standard local authority housing, which is financed from the Department’s capital allocations for social housing
• private rented accommodation
• private housing assisted by local authorities or voluntary organisations
• Traveller-specific accommodation which receives 100% capital funding from the Department. Traveller-specific accommodation includes group housing schemes and halting sites.

Cena;

Culturally Appropriate Homes: 

Building a Future with Travellers Cena (the word means ‘home’ in the Traveller language) is an Approved Housing Body that is working for and with Travellers to address critical accommodation needs. 

The Need for Cena; 

Travellers continue to suffer the worst living conditions of any section of the Irish population. A high proposition are living in overcrowded conditions, lacking basic amenities, frequently in unsafe or hazardous conditions. 

The ongoing accommodation crisis has knock-on effects for health (especially mental health with a suicide rate that is seven times higher than the settled population); but also, for prospects of members of the Traveller community for any meaningful progression through education or employment. 

Responses to this ongoing accommodation crisis have to date fallen short and have consistently failed to meet targets and objectives set – a fact acknowledged in officially-sponsored reviews of the situation both at Irish and European levels. 

Accommodation policy to date (typified by segregated and isolated settlements on the fringes of urban areas) has contributed to social problems, dysfunctional communities, social divisions and prejudices that are already deeply engrained in Irish society. Cena was established by Travellers and is Traveller led – in the firm belief that more effective, sustainable, and just solutions can be found if the community itself is given the space to formulate and implement its own accommodation responses. 

Cena is committed to building homes – homes that are culturally appropriate in communities that are cohesive and sustainable in the longer term.