Full extent of homeless crisis to be revealed today

DUBLIN City Council is to reveal the full extent of the city’s homeless crisis today as concerns rise about the issue.

The council said the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) would confirm details of the official winter count on Thursday, December 10 following a “considerable number of media questions” that had been raised about the number of people rough sleeping in the region.

It follows a rally staged at the GPO last week that was held to commemorate the death of homeless man Jonathan Corrie one year ago.

The demonstration organised by the recently founded National Homeless and Housing Coalition marked the first anniversary of Mr Corrie’s death on the street in front of the Dail which focused attention on the plight of those living on the streets.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance, who was involved in the protest, described the Government’s response to the crisis as “half-baked and misguided”.

 “A year after the tragic death of Jonathan Corrie, just yards away from the front of the Dáil, the Government have utterly failed to address the homelessness and housing crisis,” he said. “The number of families, children and individuals driven into homelessness has increased dramatically over that year and the length of housing lists have continued to spiral. The situation is totally disastrous.”

Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, the founder of Focus Ireland said that after Mr Corrie’s tragic death last year there was public outcry.

“Minister Alan Kelly brought everyone together to ensure nobody had to sleep rough due to lack of a bed,” she said. “We were assured homelessness was top of the Government agenda. However, in the past year the homeless crisis has deepened. 

“The number of families and children homeless has doubled to a September total of almost 800 families and over 1,500 children.

“The number of single people has also risen.  There are now over 100 people sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin each night and rough sleeping is also rising in Cork, Limerick and Galway.  Focus Ireland supported over 11,500 customers in 2014, an increase of 15 per cent from the 10,000 we supported in 2013.”

Dublin City Council said the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) conducts an official count on the number of individuals sleeping rough across the Dublin region on a single night in April and in November, and had done so each year since 2007.

“The full and finalised details of the count, including specified service responses, will be presented to the Dublin Joint Homeless Consultative Forum meeting on December 10 for consideration and adoption,” the council stated. “The details will be disseminated publicly immediately thereafter.”

The council also outlined various efforts by the local authority and State-funded services to address homelessness and rough sleeping in Dublin.

“The Dublin Region Homeless Executive works as a shared service on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities, with Dublin City Council as the lead,” the council stated. “It works collaboratively with statutory and State-funded voluntary services to respond to homelessness. The Cold Weather Initiative (CWI) is in place to provide a humanitarian response to persons who are at risk of rough sleeping, with the aim of preventing fatalities and/or serious harm from cold weather temperatures.”

The council revealed that from January to September 2015, 739 adults moved to tenancies – an extra 194 adults compared to the same period last year.

Another 260 adult individuals moved out of homelessness in the third quarter of the year into tenancies – the highest move on rate to tenancies in a quarter reported to date.

“This represents a 36 per cent increase in move on from homelessness to independent living, as a direct result of work by the Dublin local authorities in sourcing and allocating social housing to homeless households,” the council added.