The new year started out with the focus on Brexit, Trump and Iran but it’s homelessness which keeps resurfacing closer to home, writes Aron Hegarty
Ireland is experiencing its worst homelessness crisis in living memory and the problem has become so widespread that it is now a regular feature in Irish political and current affairs. So much so that it even risks becoming a normal part of our discourse. But there is nothing normal about experiencing homelessness.
Even the announcement of a general election has done little to detract homelessness from the agenda with the issue of housing dominating the campaigning for February 8.
In January alone there was a protest march in the capital against homelessness, while the issue of a man who was left in a serious condition after his tent was removed when he was sleeping in it dominated day one of the 2020 general election campaign.
Heart-breaking stories such as that of a young woman dying in emergency accommodation and an elderly woman eating off a windowsill now appear on a daily basis in the media.
At the end of November 2019 – the latest date for which figures are available – there were officially 10,448 people homeless across Ireland, according to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.
Necessary steps
The Irish Catholic spoke to some of Ireland’s leading charities – Focus Ireland, Cork Simon Community and Depaul – about what they are doing to try to alleviate the crisis, if they feel a new government will take further necessary steps to address the problem and what the future may hold for citizens who are, or at risk of, homelessness in this country.
“It is totally unacceptable,” said Roughan MacNamara, Focus Ireland advocacy director, of the November’s homeless figures. “There has been over 10,000 people living homeless in Ireland over the past ten months and this number is going up. It is pretty shocking and worrying how systemic homelessness is becoming.”
Of the national figure, Dublin was the region with the highest rate of homelessness at 4,509. Cork (437) with Kerry (155) made the South-West the second-highest at 592.
Paul Sheehan, Cork Simon Community’s campaigns and communications manager, says the homeless crisis has worsened nationwide over the past 12 months.
“There is huge pressure on our services and there are now more people than ever residing in emergency accommodation,” said Mr Sheehan.
“We (Cork Simon) have seen a month to month increase in the numbers living in emergency accommodation over the past three or four years.
“Our temporary mattresses are still being used on the floor of our day spaces and we are full to capacity every night of the week.”
Almost 500 people became homeless in Ireland last year and MacNamara of Focus Ireland claims the crisis would be worse without the lifeline services and housing provisions of charity groups.
“We have over 80 services nationwide to support people and prevent homelessness,” he said. “Focus Ireland works with over 15,500 people a year and have helped over 1,200 families in the past two years.
“There is good work being done, but the crisis is overtaking the success. For every family we help, another three go into or are at risk of going into homelessness.”
Focus Ireland’s strategy outlines a future where homelessness can be prevented and solved.
We are not convinced that any government has got the determination to resolve the homeless crisis in this country”
Mr MacNamara says that the real solution to the crisis is in preventing homelessness in the first instance by ensuring people have help to stay in their home once they have found one.
“It is an awful crisis but there are people coming out of it which shows that homelessness can be ended,” he said.
Cork Simon Community, founded in 1971, is among the leading charities in Ireland offering emergency services to men and women who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.
The charity provides day and night services such as one-to-one support 24/7, soup runs at 7pm each day as well as emergency shelter, drop-in visiting support, employment and reintegration services.
Cork Simon’s range of services include a dedicated Health and Outreach Team, an Employment and Training Facilitator, an Activities Co-Ordinator, a Youth Homeless Drug Prevention Project and aftercare programme.
It also provides housing and support services like high support housing and a housing first scheme, which comes under a housing-led approach to tackle homelessness.
Provisions
The aim of this approach is to help people find and keep their tenancies so once they are housed, they may focus on the factors which put – or threaten to put – them into homelessness.
Mr Sheehan though says the charity’s provisions are stretched and that there needs to be a radical overhaul of the housing system in Ireland, adding that he does not believe any government will change that.
“The housing system in Ireland is not fit for purpose,” he said. “We at Cork Simon are not convinced that any government has got the determination to resolve the homeless crisis in this country.
“More and more people are becoming homeless and we do not see any change in that trend over the coming year because there is simply no housing in place.
“Until there is adequate housing available, we are not going to see many people moving out of emergency accommodation in 2020,” he warned.
Ahead of the forthcoming election, Mr Sheehan added: “I would ask any new government: ‘What are you going to do to stop homelessness?’ because anything that has been done to prevent homelessness to date has not worked and is not working.
“We urge that the government reviews its’ current targets on tackling homelessness because they are not enough and will not be enough going forward.”
Mr MacNamara also called on the next government to develop a family homelessness strategy and guarantee that no family will be homeless for more than six months.
“More social housing needs to be built,” he said. “If not, the crisis is only going to get worse in the coming year. We at Focus Ireland call on the government to improve policy on housing and homelessness.”
Another charity whose common mission is to end homelessness and change the lives of those affected by it, is Depaul.
The organisation believe homelessness has no place and have a vision of a helping to build society in which everyone has a place to call home and a stake in their community.
Depaul was established by the Society of St Vincent de Paul in the Republic in 2002 and in the North in 2005. They are a separate, cross-border charity helping people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is the charity’s patron with the Fr Paschal Scallon CM of the Vincentian Community among the prominent members on their board.
Children are having issues with stress and depression because they are not protected or nurtured as they have no stability”
The charity works in five main areas of service provision: prevention, families and young people, high support accommodation, health and rehabilitation and housing.
Depaul manages a total of 29 services in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and has helped over 4,000 men, women and children to date.
They offer 24/7 support, providing over 600 bed spaces each night. In addition to their 450 trained staff, they have more than 600 unpaid volunteers a year working to support families, single people and couples who are homeless.
Despite these efforts, Depaul CEO David Carroll claims that a lack of adequate housing is undoing the hard work done by charities handling homeless cases.
“The year 2019 has been a year of records in terms of those experiencing homelessness,” said Mr Carroll of the latest homeless statistics.
“The lack of housing supply is hindering people’s ability to move on from homelessness. It is incredibly frustrating when you have helped people to a point, where they are ready to live independently, only to then find that they have nowhere to go.
He added: “We need to get a push on getting these numbers down and allowing people and families to get on with their lives.”
The number of homeless families in Ireland in November 2019 was officially recorded at 1,685 with 3,752 children living in emergency homeless provisions with their families.
Focus Ireland, established in 1985, believes that having a place to call home is a fundamental human right – a right recognised by the United Nations (Article 25 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
The charity’s website describes homelessness as being wrong; in that it is a failure of society that creates victims out of ordinary people and deprives them of their potential.
More than 140 children in Dublin alone were born into families living homeless in 2019 and Mr MacNamara says that allowing homelessness to continue will undermine our society.
“It damages children and stunts their development,” he said. “Children are having issues with stress and depression because they are not protected or nurtured as they have no stability.
“They need a stable home which provides the fundamental basis for that to happen.”
Homelessness has a damaging effect on health and well-being; with people who are homeless likely to have health problems at rates of three to six times greater than the housed population.
In addition, the link between poor mental health and homelessness is well documented with people who are homeless more likely to have a higher prevalence of mental illness when compared to the general population.
Mr Sheehan also fears that the impact of homelessness will have lasting implications for our society and leave a harming blueprint for the next generation.
The lack of housing supply is hindering people’s ability to move on from homelessness”
“Our main concerns are the detrimental effect that homelessness is having on families; on their general health, wellness and the impact it will have on future generations.
“We are concerned about the growing number of children born into families living in emergency accommodation plus how it will stunt their development into adulthood.
“These children will grow up in homelessness and be deprived of secure housing, something we feel is a basic human need,” he said.
All are urging voters to keep the issue front and centre in the election campaign and demand answers rather than platitudes from those competing to lead the country.
