Sir, – If we are to begin to solve the issues of housing shortages, social housing waiting lists and pressures on homeless services, we need a fundamental shift in how we view and approach housing provision. The Minister for Housing and Planning Jan O’Sullivan announced recently that she intends to establish a cross-departmental team to review and create a sustainable housing-led solution to homelessness. Surely that high-level group’s first function must be the creation of a national housing strategy which has, at its core, the right to a home?
This weekend the Constitutional Convention will also review the issue of economic, social and cultural rights which includes the right to a home. Ireland has an obligation to make gradual progress to achieve the economic, social and cultural rights the UN International Covenant on provides for, however, almost 25 years since it ratified the covenant, we have yet to realise that while not everyone can afford one, everyone has the right to a home. – Yours, etc,
PAT DOYLE,
CEO
Peter McVerry Trust,
Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.
Sir, – There have been endless reports and strategies; and massive funding has been spent in recent years on the development and provision of services for people who find themselves homeless. Yet it is impossible for members of the public to find out what services are available and even for those providing services in this area. It has now become increasingly difficult to know who has responsibility for what in the area of homelessness.
We can, in our capital city, inform the public as to where car spaces are available, yet the information about bed spaces is impossible to find. Freefone numbers are not worth the paper they are written on if people cannot get through and those tasked with the difficult job of answering the phone have no beds to offer.
Thanks to journalist Carl O'Brien for informing the public (Home News, February 8th) on the role of the Civil Defence in the provision of emergency beds. This information was only made available to some agencies and certainly not to the general public. Concerned citizens increasingly come up against brick walls when attempting to help their fellow human beings. – Yours, etc,
ALICE LEAHY,
Director & Co-Founder,
Trust,
Bride Road, Dublin 8.