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Showing posts with label Homelessness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homelessness. Show all posts

Waterford News And Star ★ Written by Shannon Sweeney. Recommended by Christy Walsh.


When you think about homeless families, does a picture of Mom, Dad and 2.5 children come to mind?

If so, then us too.

But when the Waterford News and Star visited the Waterford Helping the Homeless unit, that’s not what we found.

Catherine and Jack are a mother and son who are both sleeping rough.

Eight and a half months ago, Catherine and Jack were renting a double room in a house with 13 people for €1000 a month from an unregistered landlord.

When the rent went up, mother and son had no choice but to leave their home.

So, we tried to find Jack a room. We did find a room, not contracted, so I started doing the 9 to 9 [a council service that provides beds only for the night] because I felt like at least he was okay. I could do the 9-9. And I did that for eight and a half months, and he ended up in the same boat.

“It’s the same cycle,” said Catherine.

Jack had become homeless 12 days before we spoke to him and his mother.

The Waterford Families Sleeping On The Streets Just To Stay Together

Gary Robertson ✒ Refugees and the homeless - scroungers all - send them back - let them freeze, not our problem or the “look a distraction” card played by many.

I’m an old man now my wild days sadly (and at times fortunately) behind me, but let me regale you with the events of winter 1990-1991 in Scotland.

I was a very fit healthy young man. I had my whole life in front of me: dreams and aspirations like others but one thing was different from my peers. I was homeless. I won’t elaborate why this happened: suffice to say that whilst I wasn’t particularly innocent (my stepfather & me hated each other) so here I found myself sleeping rough in one of the coldest winters on record with no home to call my own or bed to jump into. Late at night as I lay down to sleep my mind cast to a warm bed, central heating and a warm meal. I’d dream of the things others took for granted. I longed to have these simple pleasures for myself, but at that time it wasn’t to be. 

Instead, here I was at 3am standing outside The video store staring in at the covers of VHS tapes, happy families, Christmas and New Year celebrations. I sat down for a cigarette when I spotted a guy I knew and got chatting. My plan was clear: I’d walk the three miles to his home he’d realise how cold it was and him and his wife would let me sleep on the sofa. A devious one, if I say so myself. But one that failed miserably. He got to his front gate before telling me “there is no room at the inn” I shrugged my shoulders said goodnight and noticed a thermostat on the outside of a garage. I looked in disbelief. I rubbed my eyes, nope, that didn’t work - it read the same minus 20 Celsius. 

I turned and walked the three miles “home” or at least back to the area I called “home”. I tried to roll a smoke but my hands were so cold I found it impossible but I buoyed my mood with the idea that I could break into the public toilets and use the hand driers to heat my frozen hands and feet. When I got there miracle of miracles there was hot water too. I derived such happiness from something people take for granted. Simple hot water to wash in.

I spent 18 months (give or take a week or two) sleeping in woods, under bushes, selling my soul for a night in a warm bed. Am I proud of it? No, but it happened. One memory that sticks in my mind is seeing a local joiner every morning. Half the time I’d be trying to mooch a smoke TBH but I also liked his company,  and on this particular morning when it was particularly cold he said “I’m always glad to see you lad. I worry about you sleeping out in this.” My response? “I’ll no give them the satisfaction of dying Jim” - 'them' bejng my stepfather and all his military buddies who considered me a “terrorist sympathiser.” Odd though as I’ve never saluted the union flag and we all know that behind the USA, Britain is one of the great terrorists of the world. 

No, I was determined to survive and survive I did thanks mainly I guess to one rather forgetful young man who left his sleeping bag at the bus stop. M being me and in need I figured it would be a shame if it wasn’t put to use. It was warm, it was padded, it had a hood and I do believe it belonged to the British army, Someone later told me they’d seen this young soldier standing waiting for the Edinburgh bus. I believe there’s a training camp or something near there. However, the bag was liberated and mine. Along with my resilience and good luck I managed to survive one of the harshest winters we had known for many a year.

Now you might wonder where this is leading so let me make you wait no longer

I often open X and am confronted with man’s inhumanity to man. I see homeless people being called junkies or alcoholics, scroungers, beggars amongst many other things by people who have never wanted in their lives. Never know what it’s like to have no home. Young girls running away from sexual abuse, young lads, like myself, who would have been dead if we had stuck around. You don’t know the stories of these people. Most don’t care, pull your mobile out and pretend you don’t see them as you talk to yourself for a few mins til they’re out of sight.

The same can be said of refugees, people who have seen and experienced horrific things, people who have escaped Western made war in the Middle East. You don’t know their story, their intentions, you know nothing. Their suffering means nothing to you yet you’ll stand up in public demanding to “send the buggers back” or copying and pasting some nonsense from the KhuKKle brothers Robinson & Farage. The poor, the needy, those seeking refuge are not the enemy of the working class man. We’ve all seen the video “Divide And Rule” Those millionaires and billionaires sitting on piles of cash telling us that it’s other working class people's fault we’re poor while they accumulate yet more money. It’s obscene. Honestly if you buy that BS you may as well give your brain to medical science already.

Whilst I was never a refugee I was seeking refuge. So whilst I can’t relate on every level I can on a few and I’d ask only this - find a little compassion in your heart, a simple gesture can make all the difference to a homeless person's life, to a refugee's life.

An old Native American proverb states: “do not judge a man til you have walked for two moons in his shoes” - wise words. Show a like love and stop with the hate. Is it really too much to ask?

🐼 Gary Robertson is a Glasgow Celtic fan.

Sub-Zero Homelessness

The Journal ✎ Last weekend Taoiseach Simon Harris raised eyebrows over comments he made linking record homelessness to an upsurge in people seeking asylum in Ireland.

28-September-2024

His remarks led to accusations that the Taoiseach was deflecting blame for the housing crisis away from the Government and on to vulnerable people.

Subsequent news analysis of Harris’ words also pointed out that his remarks could not be accurate, because asylum seekers are not counted in monthly homeless statistics.

Those figures have climbed to staggering heights this year, and the number of people living in emergency accommodation in Ireland has skyrocketed since the Government took office in the middle of 2020.

The reasons behind that trend are far more complex than immigration on its own.

Experts say the lack of housing for those in long-term homelessness is not enabling the numbers to fall, while factors like landlords leaving the private rental market are playing a much bigger role in the increasing numbers of people becoming homeless.

In April, the month Harris was appointed Taoiseach, homeless figures passed 14,000 for the first time in the history of the State.

That number has increased in every month since . . .

Continue reading @ The Journal.

The Taoiseach Said Asylum Seekers Are Driving Up Homeless Figures ✸ Experts Say It's Far More Complicated

Anthony McIntyre ☠ If there is something charitable about hounding homeless people out of their hostel accommodation and onto the streets perhaps someone in management at the McGwire House hostel in Waterford city, run by the charity Depaul, might come forward to proffer an explanation.

Two men were recently expelled from the hostel for five nights. One one of them has lived there for the past three years. The stated reason for the temporary expulsion was that a fire alarm had gone off when there was no fire. Management took the view that it could only have been the result of human agency rather than the use of equipment not fit for purpose either through shoddy installation or poor maintenance. The letter sent by management to one of the residents stated that the reason he was being thrown to the streets for five days was 'suspected tampering.'

The hostel management in its limited wisdom and skewed sense of justice came to a conclusion that residents it deemed guilty of “suspected tampering” could be turfed out on the street without any hearing, due process or natural justice.

An independent councillor, Donal Barry, rubbished this guilty until proven innocent perspective:

You cannot be evicting people on the suggestion that you did something wrong. It’s fundamental that you’re innocent until you’re proven guilty.

He has has called on the hostel to come to its senses and desist from evicting the man.

The punitive regime for controlling the homeless is not in accordance with a compassionate society. It more resembles how prisons in the North operated where the appearance of a prisoner before an adjudication process was evidence of guilt. This invariably resulted in them being sent to solitary for a stretch where the unfortunate was deprived of their bed as a temporary punishment. In defence of that harsh penal regime, people were at least placed in cells and not forced to sleep beneath the stars.

One of the men is currently barricaded into his room, exercising his right to accommodation and disputing any management prerogative to force people to sleep on the streets. TPQ spoke by phone to him this morning. He was distraught and distressed by the dilemma he was in. Because he refused to acquiesce in the decision to throw him out on the streets for five days he has now been told that he is to be permanently evicted. Fearful to leave his room and risk enduring a permanent life without shelter, he relies on fellow residents to pass food and sustenance to him via a bag attached to a rope but is wary that they too will be targeted for making this humanitarian gesture. 
 

The man previously told The Journal that:

I’m in my 60s and I don’t have anywhere else to go . . . I could not leave this room, it’s the only thing that I actually have right now in my life. That’s why I feel so humiliated here . . . there’s no presumption of innocence here, they just go to extremes.

He added that if evicted he 'would be on the street with nothing.'

In his conversation with TPQ he claimed: 

The facts are: They have no CCTV footage. No physical evidence the alarm was deliberately triggered . . . eviction says on 'suspicion'. Person with me insisted I did not do anything . . . he got put out for 5 days as well. They ruled out malfunction. Another man escaped same treatment twenty four hours earlier because he was talking to three staff at time he was 'suspected' of triggering an alarm.

At present this society faces what is an unprecedented and unmitigated homelessness crisis which is growing worse with population outstripping homes-built by a ratio of 4:1. It is an emergency which both the government with its promises and the opposition with its bombast seems either unable or unfit to solve. There can be no justification for what is ostensibly a charity to treat residents as if they are in a penal colony.

Is Depaul a charity or a racket? The so called charity told the Journal that it was at all times obeying its normal policies and procedures. Which means that punishment is normalised and institutionalised. Hostels for the homeless should be run in the spirit of charity where the people taking up residence are not there for anything they have done but as a result of what has been done to them. What next for Depaul - handcuffs, pepper spray and watercannon?

As pointed out by Donal Barry, Waterford City and County Council as a funder has an obligation to ensure that charities do not abuse their status, giving rise to stories of abuse reminiscent of closed institutions like prisons and mental health hospitals.  

The curtain should be brought down on this sorry spectacle immediately. Closing eyes, ears and doors to the homeless is chicanery not charity.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Hounding The Homeless

Only Sky ✏ Humanism’s mandate hits hardest in the face of senseless loss.
M L Clark

None of this would have landed in my purview if I hadn’t stepped out on Christmas Eve last year with the last of my seasonal food hampers. 

I knew that only folks having the roughest of times would be out during Nochebuena, a holiday that finds folks here, from the poorest to the richest, with family or community wherever they can find it.

Still, I was surprised to find a man I knew, named César, rocking in pain all alone on an empty street. He was a father, a single parent of two young boys. What was he doing out alone, pursuing so slender a hope of aid late on Christmas Eve?

During the later phases of official pandemic, César had been a daily presence among the neighborhood beggars, along with other parents (many out with their children), elderly folk, visibly disabled people, and youth helping parents at home. 

These are hard times for the world. Colombia is no exception. Over my years here, and especially during the fraught years of pandemic, I’ve come to know all the regulars in my neck of the woods. 

Continue reading @ Only Sky.

Never Waiting For The Miracle

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ As the 26 County administration continues with its apparent open-door policy towards allowing limitless asylum seekers refuge in Ireland and leave to seek refugee status, matters are beginning to unravel into chaos. 
 

Asylum seekers alongside our own indigenous homeless are finding there is no room in Ireland as they sleep rough on the streets of the Emerald Isle in tents, sleeping bags and, in some cases, just plastic bags. Our own homeless are sleeping in similar conditions. In fact it is probably they who educated the new arrivals in the art of survival as they have been forced to live rough for many years by different governments in the Dail. Various Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and coalition partners have turned their backs on Ireland's homeless many years ago, now they are inviting asylum seekers fleeing war torn countries, particularly Ukraine, as part of the 26 counties “hate the Russians” campaign, with, to a far lesser extent, those from Syria, a few from Yemen, Afghanistan and other troubled regions around the globe only to tell them on arrival, there is no room, find a park bench. 

This is as cruel as it is well intended, you cannot invite a person round for drinks and on their arrival serve up water! If there is no room for any more arrivals, would it not be better to say so rather than fill hearts with false hope, leaving them open to racial attacks, the drug barons, and the elements? The only difference sleeping rough in Ireland to their lands of origins is there are no bombs going off here. The accommodation offered is very similar of late, the street. This open-door policy resulting in more and more bodies sleeping rough on the streets will give the far-right a launching pad which has already happened at places like East Wall in Dublin, turning genuine concerns into racial hate, something the residents never had in mind at the outset. 

The far-right have been to a limited extent successful in their attempts to turn people against the fleeing asylum seekers particularly if they happen to be single males from the African continent. What happens if these disciples of Hitler latch on to “our streets being littered with refugees”, which most are not, they are asylum seekers aiming for refugee status, how long before the fascists capitalise on this tragic situation?

Back in 2015 Angela Merkel in Germany decided to allow in “over one million refugees” from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan into Germany as part of her “open door policy” which caused a backlash from the neo-Nazi Alternative For Deutschland (AFD) party. Many of those who initially welcomed the newcomers to Germany turned violently against them after hearing the hate mongering AFD speeches. Could the same happen here, on top of what has already happened at places like East Wall? Should the government change policy? Should they abandon the “open door” stance and begin limiting or stopping any more asylum seekers entering their jurisdiction? Is it perhaps time to start housing or at least accommodating those already here before inviting any more in? Would bringing in any more desperate people only be cruelly giving them false hope?

When the 26 County administration first set about its laudable acts of charity in line with “Cead Mile Failte” (a hundred thousand welcomes) it was a great act of kindness, admittedly for the government with an ulterior motive, but for the asylum seekers it was heaven. Now, it is turning into a kind of hell, as they jump from the frying pan of their country of origin into the fire of the 26 counties! If the government closes the door they will be accused of racism. If they close the door to all but Ukrainian asylum seekers they will, rightly, be accused of favouritism. If they continue down the present trajectory, they will fill the streets, along with our own unfortunate homeless people, with “foreigners” which will fuel the far-right organisations arguments. A tricky situation, what is the answer?

Well, if the government is really interested in finding a solution to this conundrum they could look back in history to 1919 and the “Democratic Programme of the First Dail” paragraph one. This states unambiguously “we affirm that the right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare”, such an occasion has arisen to “affirm” that right, to make private property ownership “subordinated to the public right and welfare”. If you look around Dublin and other towns and cities the amount of “private property” sitting vacant is phenomenal. Some have been vacant for months, even years so why not take these shops that were, public houses that were, ghost housing estates and take them into public ownership for the “public right and welfare.” It would provide employment for many shopfitters, carpenters, electricians, plasterers, brickies and general labourers in renovating these premises. Some do not need renovation such as the ghost housing estates which are ready for accommodation. I know the present owners will not like this suggestion but they are not really supposed to. What comes first, private ownership of property and the rights which accompany this ownership, or, the rights of people to have somewhere to live both indigenous and newcomer alike? I think it was Thomas Drummond who once said; property ownership has its “obligations as well as its privileges,” as true today as it was then.

All the government has to do is place a “compulsory purchasing order” on all property left idle for three months or more. Start work, where necessary, on renovating using the labour outlined above. Many homeless people both indigenous and asylum seeker are tradesmen themselves and could start helping in this renovation work, earning a living wage, where one day they themselves might live. What a great prospect for somebody who, through no fault of their own, have become homeless either through reasons of war in their lands of origins or sheer bad luck at home here in Ireland, to have the opportunity of developing premises for themselves and those in similar positions to live.

The question is, will the government have the backbone to take this decision? Will they have the balls to take on the property owners through legislation? Or, on the other hand, will they go belly up the moment the rich man frowns in an aggressive manner? They could do it if they wanted to: the question is, do they? The 26 County administration are often boasting their pride, rightly so, in Irish history and fight against oppression so now why not put some of that revolutionary past into modern day practice? I suggest they read and digest the contents of the “Democratic Programme of the First Dail” and think about enacting some of it today, otherwise I see a disaster waiting to happen!

🖼 Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Open Doors Policy 🚪 Could It Be Time For A Policy Change?

Common Dreams ✒ It turns out the very best thing to do is give people who don't have a place to live... a place to live.

Apr 29, 2023

Determined to pack more homeless people into Toronto’s overcrowded shelters, officials have come up with a solution: reduce the number of inches between beds.

There’s a certain logic to this and it may be the best we can do — given our refusal to consider solutions that would actually be innovative.

And so it is that here in Toronto we’re busy studying how to jam more beds into already-cramped shelters, while over in Finland — where innovation is more than just another word for privatization — they’ve managed to virtually end homelessness.

OK, so the Finns are more generous and just shell out a lot more to help the homeless, right? Actually not. The Finns are simply smarter.

Instead of abandoning the homeless, they housed them. And that led to an insight: people tend to function better when they’re not living on the street or under a bridge. Who would have guessed?

Continue reading @ Common Dreams.

How Finland Virtually Ended Homelessness 🏠 And We Can Too

Friends Helping Friends ✒ struggles to break free from the red tape of government bureaucracy as it struggles to feed the homeless in Dublin.  

To say we are devastated doesn’t even cover it. Some of this post was taken from our sister soup runs page the Homeless St Café but it sums up exactly how we are feeling

Over the last 4 years me and my amazing team have been trying to feed and care for the homeless in Dublin. We have only been able to do this each week with the kind donations from many of the people reading this. We have overcome many obstacles and barriers to provide the service every Tuesday and Saturday but this latest strike may very sadly be the final nail in the coffin for Friends Helping Friends.

Without prior contact and on foot of No complaints, the HSE’s Environmental Health department met us before we could started feeding our long queue the other Tuesday. They asked me a number of questions about how we operate. They referred to us continuously as a food business or as a charity, of which we are neither. It's actually something we’ve always prided ourselves on; simply being a group of like-minded people merely wanting to share a bit of care and kindness our forgotten homeless population.

We had hoped that the Dept would treat us similarly to other cases we are aware of where only recommendations were made. However, despairingly we have subsequently received a letter to outline to us that they have chosen in the case of homeless soup runs to subject us a strict compliance issues and full enforcement action and closure if we do not comply!!

My first reaction on receiving the letter was being completely overwhelmed with emotion. It really should not be this hard to help people in need. I just can’t believe people would work harder to stop you than help you. Now, however, while it would be easier to just quit, I feel we have to advocate for those who rely on us and let our supporters know what’s happening for us, and more importantly to the homeless people themselves.

We are not averse to recommendations and welcome any support we can get. However imposing costs on us to meet regulations designed for the professional food industry is too hard. For example, asking a small group like us to have full hand washing facilities to serve cakes on the side of the street is difficult to fathom, particularly when there was a complete failure by the relevant authorities to provide any hand washing or toilet facilities for the homeless during Covid lock downs when it was identified as one of the key elements in Covid prevention. Shocking - these facilities were then provided for social drinkers once a few videos circulated.
 
Or asking a pensioner who occasionally makes sandwiches for us to attend and pay for a specialised food safety training and to register and have her kitchen inspected by the HSE is beyond what can be expected of ordinary, caring people. This alone would be the death knell for what we are trying to provide; the end of people sharing what they can with other people.

When did we become this type of nation? A nation that reprimands repeatedly for helping those in need, that tells us not to help, then puts in strict limits about how to help, and then is trying to force us out with the unfeasible costs of helping. All we ever wanted to do was show we care and pass on people’s kindness to those in need. Our service and the other soup runs are hugely valued by those who turn up each week. Getting the ‘applause of a grateful nation’ on The Late Late Show 18 months ago, and now being forced off the street with this. When did we become such a Nanny state that deters ordinary people showing kindness?

We are not the only soup run to have been visited and according to the inspectors they will be visiting them all.

Does this level of enforcement apply to every cake sale, coffee morning or other incidence of sharing food? I doubt it.

If Dublin City Council or the HSE want to provide us with a premises to operate from with hand washing facilities, a kitchen, and people offering to do all this for free, they know where we are.

I really am sickened to my core. I’m beaten. I’m heart-broken that this is where we are. What’s the point in teaching our children to share and care, when such acts are severely punished in adulthood.

To the government, HSE and Dublin City Council I say…
This is your job to do, so do it and we will happily go on with our lives
Or failing that, help us to do the job you can’t or won’t
But for the love of God, if you can't do any of the above, leave us alone to do it in peace.

To the homeless that use our service each week…
We are so sorry this is happening and we will try our very best to overcome this for you somehow.

⏩ Friends Helping Friends is a soup run in Dublin Inner City which provides food, clothes, sleeping bags etc to the homeless and those who have hit hard times.

Hindering Helpers

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