The Simon Community speak to JOE about the plight of Dublin’s homeless as the Taoiseach announces measures to combat the need for people to sleep rough.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced on Wednesday that, from Wednesday night, 26 extra beds will be made available to those sleeping rough in Dublin city centre.
Varadkar also mentioned that 200 beds will be in place by Monday, 18 December.
Speaking to the Dáil, Varadkar said that “26 permanent beds are to be provided in Little Britain street” from Wednesday night, with a further 25 permanent beds in Cabra and 67 temporary beds to be made available this week.
As well as this, an additional 200 single or double room beds will be provided for those sleeping rough by mid-December. The Taoiseach, who spoke of how he was ”deeply saddened” by the deaths of two homeless men in Dublin within 48 hours, went on to say that cost isn’t a problem in terms of providing places to sleep; however, a problem does lie with the capacity of the building sector to construct houses.
“The issue we’re going to be running into is not money at all,” Varadkar said. “The issue we’re going to be running into is the capacity of the building sector to actually build all these homes.”
Annmarie Brennan from the Simon Community spoke to JOE about the extra beds being provided for rough sleepers, and the extra importance of the measure as the temperatures drop:
”As the temperatures drop to freezing, the extreme weather beds that are in operation in addition to the 200 additional permanent emergency beds announced by the minister last week, are extremely welcome and desperately needed,” she said.
“This comes at a time when the number of people sleeping rough across the Dublin region reached 184 people, the highest figure ever recorded. We are seeing great efforts by the Dublin Simon Community, the Local Authorities and other Housing Bodies, to deliver additional emergency beds as the demand increases. In addition to extra emergency beds, our Rough Sleeper Team along with the Housing first Intake team are vigorously working on the streets each night to link people to vital supports and accommodation.’
”These tragic deaths and the high number of people sleeping rough highlights the enormous challenge at hand.
“Our soup run and rough sleeper team, who are out 365 nights of the year, see first hand the difficulties that people on our streets are faced with. People are tired, they are undernourished, their medication may not be used and they are open to other exposures like alcohol or drugs. Without these additional beds and supports, those who are without a roof over their heads would be more vulnerable, particularly as face the colder weather and are experiencing harsher conditions.”
"200 additional permanent emergency beds so that there will be a bed and all the necessary supports available for anyone who needs them. All of these beds will be brought into use over the coming weeks and all will be in place by 18 December" @MurphyEoghan https://t.co/J2pqVI6skQ
— Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage (@DeptHousingIRL) November 22, 2017
Independent TD Joan Collins also spoke unabashedly about how Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy and his department needed “to get up off their backsides and implement a programme of public housing”. Collins added that €1.3 billion has been put aside for a “rainy day” fund to be used in circumstances just like these.
Varadkar confirmed this statement and then some by stating: “We have more than €8 billion for housing which will allow us to build 3,000 social houses.”
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