Aims of Programme:
• GTM aims to support Travellers to have fair and equal access to high quality appropriate accommodation.
• GTM aims to achieve advances in Travellers overall health status as a result of an enhanced accommodation situation
Past Work:
• Recommendations developed and advocacy undertaken towards the completion, adoption and implementation of a comprehensive Traveller Accommodation Plan 2005-2008 (TAP)
• Travellers supported to engage in decision making in relation to accommodation both collectively and individually
• Models of good practice researched and / or developed in relation to: Tenant Participation, Voluntary Housing, Rental initiatives
• Links between poor accommodation and health inequalities identified, highlighted and steps taken to address them in consultation with appropriate health service providers
• DVD ‘Too Much to ask for’ produced to highlight how the successes or failures of Local Authorities to provide good quality accommodation impacts on Traveller lives.
Current Work:
• Outreach work to identify accommodation issues and provide support to Travellers to work collectively or individually to address them
• Support to Travellers to engage in relevant decision making structures and to feedback information to Traveller community
• Carry out health risk assessment (HRA) on Carrowbrowne transient halting site and raise awareness of the findings at a Conference.
• Provide support and training to community workers in relation to outreach work & environmental health issues
• Lobby to have realistic targets agreed and implemented in order to address the shortfall in Traveller accommodation
• Liaise with City Council to implement a Traveller specific tenant participation strategy
• Participate on national structures to ensure that policy developed reflects the local experience for Travellers and that policy is implemented in the manner intended at a local level
Recommendations on Traveller Accommodation:
• The establishment of a structure that would both coordinate and where necessary enforce policy where Government and Local Government bodies have consistently failed to meet their own targets and standards, as well as encouraging good practice.
• Funding to carry out a detailed development plan on the establishment of a Traveller led Voluntary Housing Association to provide to Traveller specific accommodation and commitment to support the implementation of the findings.
• Reverse the damaging impact of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (2002)
• Establishment of mechanisms to monitor and enforce health and safety standards in relation to Traveller accommodation.
For more information contact: Anne Costello, Galway Traveller Movement.
