Sir, – Emergency homeless services in Dublin are in crisis. There are now more people forced to sleep on the streets than at any time in the past 10 years. Dublin City Council is reduced to handing out sleeping bags to many homeless people each night, as all the emergency beds are full. One person who rang the emergency homeless telephone line looking for a bed for the night was told that he was 54th in the queue; another was waiting on the line for one hour and 40 minutes before getting through – to be told that there were no beds available.
Homeless people are being asked to produce hostel receipts for seven nights before they will be given social welfare payments – but they can’t get into the hostels! If they are lucky enough to get a bed, they have to pay for their night’s accommodation, but nobody can explain how they are meant to pay with no money!
It is frustrating enough to be homeless when the services actually work; with the services now close to collapse, their frustration levels are boiling over. – Yours, etc,