’60 People A Month Are Becoming Homeless’

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Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly, responding to questions at a forum on homelessness  last December, following the death of Jonathan Corrie. The man holding the sign behind Mr Kelly is David Finn, whose father Noel Finn died after living homeless for seven-and-a-half years in Clondalkin

Further to the news that Dublin City Council’s homeless budget has been left with an €18.5million shortfall, Fianna Fail Dublin City Councillor Paul McAuliffe spoke to Cathal MacCoille this morning on Morning Ireland.

Cathal MacCoille: “Dublin City Council says the Government has left it €18million short in tackling homelessness with Assistant Chief Executive Richard Brady told councillors last night that the deficit is serious and could affect services. The councillors looked for funding of over €55million last April but were informed by the Department of the Environment that it will just get €37million for this year. Paul McAuliffe is a Fianna Fail councillor on Dublin City Council and he’s with us now. Good morning Paul, you’re welcome to the studio this morning.”

Paul McAuliffe: “Thank you.”

MacCoille: “Was this a surprise, you only found out last night?”

McAuliffe: “Yeah, I suppose the figures were circulated to the Corporate Policy Group which is a cross-party group which is tasked with running the councillors and running the budget and really, not only the decision, but the scale, the €18.5million really did take back many councillors. It was in marked contrast to the commitment that the Minister [for the Environment, Alan Kelly] gave last December, following the death of Jonathan Corrie, when he said that finances would not be an issue in terms of taking people off the streets. And when we have over 1,000 children in emergency accommodation, to put that very last front of emergency accommodation, to put that at risk, by withdrawing funding and not making funding available, really, it has to be questioned why the minister hasn’t stepped in and discussed this with his officials.”

MacCoille: “Is the problem bigger than you expected?”

McAuliffe: “Absolutely, we set aside, the service would cost €68million in total. We set aside a budget of €55million and we set a contingency of five as well but the department have only come back with €37million, it’s a huge shortfall, it’s just 60% of the total cost, rather than the 90% which is required.”

MacCoille: “The Department say that the €55million, that Dublin City Council knew that the allocation, the national allocation was €55million, an increase they say of €10million or 22% on last year and that if your request had been acceded to, no other city, town or county would have received any allocation. This was not a tenable option.”

McAuliffe: “Well perhaps they should have told their own minister because he did not make that clear last December. We were told to go ahead and ensure that people were not left on the streets, that people were put into emergency accommodation, that we were to turn around the voids in the city and on all of those issues, on all of those budgets, the minister has fallen short.”

MacCoille: “If the problem is bigger than expected by you, or indeed by Government, then obviously, the money that was originally allocated nationwide wasn’t going to be enough, is that fair?”

McAuliffe: “Absolutely, and I think that’s a matter for the minister to respond to. It has been clear all of last year and every month of this year that the homeless crisis is increasing.”

MacCoille: “So there’s no guarantee that even if you get the €55million you requested that even that would be enough?”

McAuliffe: “Yeah, we have, we had more than 30 people a month presenting as homeless last December. We now have more than 60 people in May and June representing each month.”

Listen back in full here

Earlier: Meanwhile On Bolton Street

Previously: Less Than 50m From The Dáil

The Bed Summit

Mark Stedman/Rollingnews.ie

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21 thoughts on “’60 People A Month Are Becoming Homeless’

  1. everybody

    I think it comes down to access to jobs, and the Leaving Certificate as a system in Ireland is set up to keep certain people out of the jobs market has a lot to answer for….. More money from the government will not stop people from becoming homeless …

  2. Zuppy International

    Meanwhile the members of the Royal Oireachtas award themselves an extra €6,400 a year. Is this their bonus payment for continuing to bow to the will of the criminal banking elite and f**k over the nation they were supposedly elected to serve?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkPxKlqEzj0

  3. Dubloony

    Dublin City Councillors, specifically SF, People Before Profit and FG voted to reduce local property tax by 15%, losing them €4 million per year. They were told at the time that this would have an impact on homeless situation. But they chose a populist measure that affects mainly wealthier people.

    There are derelict sites all over Dublin that need to be developed. DCC needs to put pressure on land bank hoarding and bring in specific measures
    Its nice to blame a minister but they have questions to answer themselves.

  4. Weldoninhio

    I’ve seen a figure of 3800 homeless in Dublin. 37m divided into 3800 is over E11k a year. Where is the money going?? And that doesn’t include all of the money from homeless charities. I think thats more than enough.

    1. Dubloony

      How many homeless charities are there? Why is charity needed at all?

      Would it not be cheaper to build social housing than pay for B&B costs.

      1. Weldoninhio

        Thats my thinking as well. Homelessness seems to be big business to charities and b&bs and hostels. Is there the political will to deal with it??

  5. fmong

    Would any of this relate to the 540 million moved from ‘local services’ to Irish Water?

  6. Badger4hire

    Can someone define ‘Homeless’ for me?

    It seems anyone who loses their home (due to not keeping up with rent/repayments etc) is immediately tagged as being ‘on the streets’. This isn’t true, as most people have family to move in with, or can find cheaper, albeit smaller and less suitable, accommodation.

    We have one of the most generous social welfare systems in the world, one which gives ample support to people looking for work and/or needing a place to stay – emergency accommodation exists for all, but should be treated as just that – a roof over your head while you get back on your feet. Instead, people are using it to fast-track themselves to the top of the housing lists and then lobbying the government build more social houses.

    And I’m sorry, but someone who dies after 7 and ½ years living homeless wasn’t on the streets because of a lack of alternatives – building thousands of social housing units won’t address the real problems here, it’ll only create new ones

  7. Lorcan Nagle

    And this is the result of Austerity. We’ve been told repeatedly that Ireland is coming out of the recession, and on a macro level there’s some truth to that. But the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and a sizeable chunk of the middle class have become poor. Outside the nicely packaged world of statistics this country has become a much worse place to live for the most hard-pressed and disadvnataged elements of our society.

    1. Dubloony

      The combination of people who can’t sell, not building any homes, banks not lending, debt overhang from crash, increasing population, lack of proper co-ordination of addiction services is a toxic mix to unravel.

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