Vigil held for 400 homeless deaths in Dublin

A vigil was held outside Leinster House to commemorate the 402 homeless people who have died on the streets of Dublin since 2018.

The vigil heard from prominent campaigner Fr Peter McVerry and Aubrey McCarthy, Chairman of Tiglin Ireland.

Speaking at the vigil Fr McVerry said “there are real people behind these numbers.”

Fr McVerry said there were a number of “complex” reasons that explain why people lost their lives during periods of homelessness.

He said “during homelessness, living in hostels is miserable and mental health deteriorates to a sense of hopelessness and these are the conditions under which addiction is used to try to cope with situations that you find yourself in.”

He added that while addressing housing issues is one part of the solution, he said that better addiction services were needed.

Fr McVeery also said he did not think there was “enough of an outcry” given that the official homeless numbers have risen past 12,000 in the most recent report.

The vigil, organised by Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín TD, was attended by politicians from People Before Profit, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party as well independent TDs.

Freedom of Information statistics released to Aontú from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive shows 236 deaths were notified to the service in the five years since 2018.

An investigation published by the Department of Health in recent weeks, produced by the Health Research Board, found that substance abuse and mental health were contributing factors to deaths, but the report also cites that “deaths were primarily the result of the social determinants of health, including inadequate accommodation, poverty, lack of employment, child and adult trauma, and imprisonment”.

“Documents released to me under the Freedom of Information Act in recent weeks show that 20 homeless people have died in Dublin in the first few months of this year. One of them was a child, with a further four people aged between 20 and 29. Over two-thirds of those who died were young than me,” Tóibín said.

Tóibín noted that outside of Dublin, no other local authority area in Ireland records homelessness figures, which he said was a “disgrace.”

“If we are not even measuring what is happening in respect of fatalities in homelessness, how in God’s name can we marshal the necessary resources to help fix the problems in these locations?”

Tóibín said, “we know the causes of these deaths – what we now need is the urgent implementation of the solution.”

“We need the Departments of Health, Justice, Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and Education to work together on this issue, from DEIS schools to psychologists and social workers and prison officers.”

“It is a scandal that people are dying in homelessness at this rate in Ireland in 2023, and the Government has taken far too long even just to look into this issue.”