HOMELESSNESS among drug addicts is increasing as community activists have forced the drug trade from their areas, according to a Dublin help centre.
The Merchant's Quay Project said a survey of the addicts seeking its help had shown more and more of them are homeless, increasing their isolation from support services and their chances of greater drug use.
Father Sean Cassin of the project said many addicts had been told by community activists to find a place on a treatment course and, having failed to do so, were frightened to return home. They were left wandering the streets "desperate for somewhere to stay and for money and for drugs".
The survey of 252 addicts showed about 35 per cent were homeless, compared to 30 per cent in a similar study a year ago. Almost four fifths of those who had become homeless said they had since increased the amount of drugs they were using.
A majority, many of whom were teenagers, indicated they never used food centres or other support services. Father Cassin said homeless drug addicts were also not welcome at hostels. They were also liable to behave in a more volatile fashion through lack of sleep and being out in the cold.
He said communities, along with State and voluntary agencies, had to find ways to deal with drug addicts in their own homes rather than allowing them to be driven on to the streets.
The Independent Dublin TD, Mr Tony Gregory, said the community activists had faced little choice and were only trying to protect their own children from the drug business.
"It's all very well to theorise on the basis of sample studies but when people are living in a community plagued by heroin pushers, living in fear that their children will become victims of heroin, then they have no option but to take action to defend their own families."
He said in areas where community activists were organised, drug abuse had fallen, while elsewhere it was "as bad or worse then ever".
The Merchant's Quay survey, completed with the allied Franciscan Social Justice Initiatives, showed that 60 per cent of addicts had started injecting heroin while still in their teens. Father Cassin said those who sought help were still finding it difficult to get access to treatment courses.
The Eastern Health Board's clinics in the city were full and there, was a waiting time of up to four weeks before an addict might be seen at the Trinity Court centre on Pearse Street.