‘I am no saint, but I don’t think I deserve to die like this’: How are Dublin’s rough sleepers managing in cold weather?

In temperatures as low as minus five on Wednesday night, dozens of people slept in tents and doorways in a small area around Dublin’s city centre.

Many, including young women without adequate clothing for sub-zero night air, sat on bare concrete begging in almost deserted streets around midnight.

Despite provision by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) of 40 extra emergency beds as part of its “extreme weather emergency protocol”, in addition to 330 extra beds opened for the annual cold weather strategy, many of the capital’s homeless cannot or will not take them.

Seven tents were set up around the former Debenhams shop on Henry Street. One was off the freezing ground, on wooden pallets. In another were three occupants.

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Asked how the cold was affecting them, a man in his 50s said: “I don’t how we’re coping. The foreigners are being put up and we’re left like this. It’s not right.”

Robert (33) was in a tent he had shared with his partner until Monday. “Two days ago she went into a bed in Mount Brown. They hadn’t space for a couple,” he said.

“It’s Baltic but I have no place to go. You know when your hands sting from the cold? I get that in my brain the last week,” he said. “I am back suffering with addiction. I smoke crack cocaine for energy and heroin to get to sleep ... People do help, it’s just how this country has gone, it’s unbelievable.”

While he chatted he lit a crack pipe, inhaling deeply while explaining that he wanted to stay awake as he feared an attack on his tent. Crack, he said, is €20 a bag and heroin €15. “You can smoke in the hostels but it’s more safer on the streets than in the hostel,” he said. “I can’t see myself living to March if I don’t get in somewhere, out of this tent. I put my hands up – I am no saint, but I don’t think I deserve to die like this.”

Others, however, avoid hostels to stay away from drugs, said Dr Alana Lawlor, who works with the Safetynet charity, which provides primary care to marginalised groups including homeless people. She noted an increased incidence of respiratory illnesses among the cohort. Given their living conditions, they face getting sicker and taking longer to recover than the “housed” population.

“We see many who just can’t go into the hostels if they want to stay away from drugs. In this cold weather they are making a choice between safety and warmth, and choosing safety,” she said.

At the GPO on O’Connell Street young men gathered waiting for the Dublin Simon rough sleeper team. One was from Dún Laoghaire, others were from Egypt, Algeria, Ghana and Gaza.

While the former is entitled to an emergency bed from the DRHE, the others, as asylum seekers, are dependent on the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS). It is prioritising women and children.

Baraa (23), originally from Gaza city, had been in Dublin for “30 days” having travelled across Europe. “I went to IPAS. They tell me when they find me accommodation they will send by email. I don’t know [what] I do now.”

Asked where he is sleeping, he said, “on the road, on the street ... I have war in Gaza. My father, he is dead. I hope to stay in Ireland but in one month I don’t have sleep. Every night I wake up five times because it is very cold in the night.”

Ciaran King, outreach manager with Dublin Simon, said his team could advocate for them with IPAS but could not access a DRHE bed for this group. “The international protection applicants are in a really difficult situation,” he said.

The charity is experiencing “one of the busiest” periods in its five years engaging people sleeping rough. “We’re getting about 70 to 80 alerts a day from members of the public through the rough sleeper app.”

The number of people found sleeping rough in November was 118, up from 83 in the previous count in March. While the proportion of women remains steady, at about 30 per cent, many have “more layers of complexity”, including homelessness as a result of domestic violence.

Anyone concerned about a person sleeping rough can alert Dublin Simon outreach through the DRHE app Dublin Rough Sleeper Alerts, or at https://www.homelessdublin.ie/homeless/i-am-rough-sleeping/report-rough-sleeper.

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