Full coverage: Peter McVerry Trust

The State’s previously underfunded flagship homeless programme contributed to financial woes at the Peter McVerry Trust. A new procurement approach aims to stabilise its provision.

Dublin City Council was left with no choice in awarding the Housing First homeless service contract, it said, after a tender process collapsed last year.

In December 2023, the leading homeless charity should have celebrated its 40th anniversary in style. Instead, it waited on a €15 million State bailout. Two reports lay bare a cavalcade of governance issues and financial mismanagement that put it in the red.

Beyond immediate shelter, more and more people need complex assistance to escape entrenched homelessness. Price competition between charities has pushed the sector to the brink, but procurement policy is now changing.

A governance expert from Mazars and a regulatory specialist from the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority are now inspectors to the Peter McVerry Trust. A new letter sent days before their appointment gives new insight.

The regulator of housing charities has decided to send inspectors with extensive investigative powers into the nationwide homelessness organisation after it reported financial difficulties.

The housing charity is increasingly working with property developers and investors to provide much-needed supported housing. But Francis Doherty, the man in charge of its housing portfolio, says more landlord incentives are needed to stop tenants losing their home in the first place.