This morning.
Sam writes:
Homeless people sleeping behind the railings of the Custom House in Dublin being moved on this morning. Today Homeless charities and groups will come together to try to come up with a solution to solve the Homeless crises in Dublin and around Ireland following the death of a homeless man meters from Leinster House.
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
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Maybe stop pumping millions into the hands of shareholders and “consultants” and actually invest it in our country?
In before some snide comment about “you know nothing about economic development”… try being homeless for a week and get back to me on how important bank insolvency is, please.
You know nothing about economic development.
or economics. Or government apparently.
i know youre very bold indeed
ah yea, the cops. the solution to all complex, long term problems in this country.
I feel enlightened, thanks
Anyone else waiting on the Waterford Whispers spoof on genuine homeless people not being able to find a doorway to sleep in due to soaring numbers of meeja types spending the night out in the cold in a desperate attempt to catch up on a story they should have been reporting long ago – pauses for breath – no, me neither…
Focus Ireland already did that with “celebs” a couple of weeks ago…..
On what legal basis can a Garda “move you along”? I didn’t know we had vagrancy laws in this place; if we did. the Romanian begging gangs should be a priority target.
Not sure of the exact wording but something about being a certain distance from cash points and entrances to residential and commercial properties
With some luck a concrete plan will be put in place.
I regularly see gardaí moving on Roma beggars. Last time I overheard the garda saying “you are committing an offence by begging here”. No idea if they consider Roma a priority though. I’m sure if they did they’d be opening themselves to allegations of racism.
ever walk by there in the morning?
it’s all empty beer cans, broken bottles and streams of piss flowing across the footpath.
show me any city where this would be allowed to occur at a state building.
Sorry, cant do that because in most countries the hobo’s all have somewhere nicer to stay :-)
In Amsterdam the first time I was there I said to a local “how come you dont have any homeless people?” and he told me the council makes these wooden shacks in the parks for them to get drunk in. They have basic beds, washing facilities and heat. Keeps them off the streets and out of trouble
In JimmytheHead’s world, there is no such countries as the USA, England, France, Spain, Australia etc etc. All of which have a homeless problem.
Holland still have a homeless problem mate, they just deal with it in a realistic manner.
p.s. am i youre target for trolling today? OMG im so excited!
In Spain they are dealing with people sleeping rough by replacing the street furniture, putting up benches and bus stops with arm-rests and other obstacles.
It’s a huge waste of public money we supposedly don’t have, and It’s not just ineffective, it’s malicious.
And this is coming at a time of sharply increasing homelessness, due to massive evictions.
So be careful what you wish for.
making them unwelcome just forces them into breaking and entering, giving them somewhere safe to stay takes them off the street and reduces the costs of having to clean up and fix stuff after them
so jimmythehead, you are now describing a shelter. which many homeless persons won’t enter because they feel vulnerable, so the ‘option’ to go back to the streets is a more realistic one.
in london they have a very assertive outreach policy. you are invited into a bed by an outreach team at first. if you decline then a cop brings you to a shelter. if you’re part of a drinking school then the shelter staff isolate the ringleader and transfer him to another facility so they can work with the others. our outreach isn’t that assertive but sometimes i feel it should be, particularly over the winter months.
Do they? In London, they also put spikes down and cages around heating ducts so homeless people cant sleep in certain areas. Swings and roundabouts
so do we don. but if there’s a justification for that sort of outreach, their numbers who die from exposure in rough sleeper locations have significantly dropped over the past 5 years.
there is a huge ethical issue here though. on the one hand, there is no will by gardai or outreach teams to force people into shelters. on the other, society as a whole does not want to fail persons who are sleeping rough but what to do when someone does not want to engage with supports?
Concrete plan to solve homelessness…damn keyboard
I know, how about all the bleeding heart liberals take a homeless man or woman in for the Christmas? Lead by example and all that…
The Christmas what?
Do you know, any time I read the term “bleeding heart liberal” I immediately dismiss the author as an ignorant dickhead.
Fact.
Don’t forget the term “do-gooders”…
Yeah all those pesky kind humans …. shakes head in disgust
I suppose the guards have to help the Government to move the homeless from prominent areas. Government can’t afford the scandal of another poor misfortunate dying on the steps of a government held property. That section of the custom house has had homeless people there for years. Last summer the hubby and I were driving back from the city centre and two young homeless people (a girl and a boy) were sleeping on a duvet on the tiny grassy bit outside the AIB on Amien Street not far from the customs house. It was on a roundabout and they were passed out as cars and buses just rushed by. It terribly sad to see.
The other day everyone was giving out because we just ignored someone sleeping rough, and now we’re giving out because the Guards AREN’T ignoring them – maybe they were just checking if they were alive.
There are empty warehouses in grand canal dock scheduled for gentrification but this will not happen until next year. It would cost virtually nothing to build small walled units inside with a mattress in each.
All that needs doing is a decision made and all the services needed would fall into place.
it’s not just about the bricks and mortar. every homeless service needs a complement of staff in the event of an emergency and to carry on follow-through work with each service user. if you have an open-access, low-threshold, non-regulated facility you’ll be looking at overdoses, robberies, violent assaults and more within a few weeks.
That’s a good point too.
I also think guards on the beat know who’s who, the different characters. Recently a new young girl started “walking the streets” near our home. It’s a very famous street near Baggott street and when I voiced concerns to Donnybrook Garda station about how very young and the fact that she seemed out if it staggering around the street most if the night), they knew exactly who I was talking about. The guards drive that street every night a good few times, pity they miss the fact that 90% of this young girl’s business is taxi drivers. Bless her, I haven’t seen her for a few weeks now.
Richard Gere swooped down and has taken her to stay in the Four Seasons.
Everyone who is beating their chests about the poor homeless saints now are probably the same people who were ‘terrified’ of all the junkies, drunks and beggars in Dublin just a few weeks ago.
Jump on any old bandwagon, point fingers, forget about it and move on. Wash, rinse, repeat.