Sir, – In more than 30 years of working with homeless people, I have never been more frustrated. The frustration of homeless people is also at boiling point.
The emergency accommodation available is an insult to homeless people – shared accommodation where everyone is “dumped” together regardless of their circumstances. People who are drug-free have to share a room with active drug users. People who were abused as children have to share a room with strangers. Young vulnerable people are terrified, sharing a room with career criminals. Every day homeless people complain to me that, waking up in the morning, the people sharing their room are gone – along with their money, their phone, and anything else of value they had. If they refuse to accept this accommodation, they will often be refused welfare payments and left penniless.
Young homeless people leaving St Patrick’s Institution, who are at a crossroads in their life, are dumped into a drug-filled hostel, have to walk the streets all day, with nothing to occupy them. Why are we surprised when they return to drugs or crime?
Escape from homelessness into the private rented sector is now almost impossible. The demand for rented accommodation is increasing, landlords are demanding money up front which homeless people do not have, and the rent subsidy available from the State is so low that, even if they succeed in getting a flat, it will often be sub-standard and unfit for accommodation – paid for by the State!
Many homeless people feel safer sleeping on the street, begging for their income. They are demoralised and angry. Their plight is our problem: as the African proverb says: “If your neighbour is hungry, your chickens aren’t safe!” – Yours, etc,
Fr PETER McVERRY SJ
Jesuit Centre for Faith
and Justice,
Upper Sherrard Street,
Dublin 1.