Fr Peter McVerry of the Peter McVerry Trust
Fr Peter McVerry spoke to Jonathan Healy on Newstalk Lunchtime in the last hour, following on the death of the homeless man on Molesworth Street in Dublin – just metres from Leinster House.
Peter McVerry: “Unfortunately cattle and sheep are more important to our economy than homeless people. We have a homeless crisis that is not being addressed. There is absolutely no sense of urgency on the part of the Government to address this problem and it’s going to get worse. I mean now, I have a situation, the first time ever in my industry where you have whole families sleeping on the street. I’m aware of one family, they’ve put their children into care and the parents are sleeping on the streets. They didn’t want their children sleeping on the street but there was no accommodation available, they had to put their children into care. I think this winter we will see people, homeless people, dying. I think, to be honest, the majority of homeless people dying this winter are going to die from suicide because I have people coming in to me who are suicidal, extremely depressed, saying, ‘I can’t take this anymore and I don’t see anyway out’. I’m told, three nights out of four, I’m told, ‘there’s no beds available, you’ll have to sleep on the street’ and I don’t see any way out of this. So they’re absolutely at the end of their, they’ve given up hope.”
Jonathan Healy: “Peter you’ve worked in the area for a number of years. We know, I mean, I’ve been out with you, we’ve spoken in the past, that, during the boom, if you were homeless, there would be other issues at play, such as alcohol, drugs, very common amongst the homeless community, if we’re to call it that. What’s different about this particular type of crisis. I want to move away from the immediate case we’re talking about; is it a different type of challenge that we’re facing now? And if so, why?”
McVerry: “It is. The majority of people who are becoming homeless today are becoming homeless because they’re being thrown out of private rented accommodation because the rents have gone through the roof. Focus Ireland tells us there 45 families last month, they usually deal with 8 families a month, this year they’ve dealt with an average of 40 families per month, and last month it was 45. And out of those 45 families, I understand 41 of them have been evicted from their rented accommodation. Not for anti-social behaviour, not because they were drinking, not because they didn’t pay the rent but because they couldn’t pay the rent. So the people who are becoming homeless today have never been homeless before, they never for one moment in their lives ever thought that they would be homeless and they just find the situation absolutely intolerable. It’s a whole…they’ve never been in this situation before and they’re absolutely horrified to find themselves in this situation, particularly if they have children.”
Listen back here.
Depressing reading…
But the recession is over, austerity is over, people can’t be homeless…..
Sure everyone partied back in the Celtic Tiger, even the homeless.
Irish Water spending €81,000 a week to law firms though!
Class wee country!
Ugh…Ireland
I’ve had enough
It would lend more weight to the article if it expanded on the rental problem for instance what were the rental increases involved with families, how long had they been in arrears, what opportunities were they given to find alternatives etc. It’s a terrible situation but it also paints landlords in a bad light which might not necessarily be accurate.
Or perhaps it does go in to it – I don’t have the facility to listen to the broadcast as yet.
Yes – it’s all to easy to attribute the homeless crisis solely on rising rents and so-called ‘evictions’. Are the current structures and systems failing? What was the employment status of these families?
Having rented for 20 years, I can tell you that a landlord/lady with any shred of decency is as rare as hens’ teeth. My previous landlady told me she was selling up due to family illness. I left and she rented it for €250 more per month than I was paying. That’s what we’re dealing with. It is not a rare occurrence. What we need – and what we won’t get – is enforcement of the legislation that exists. Also, market rate should not be a term associated with rents because it leads to exorbitant rent hikes that are not reflective of the state of the economy as can be seen by the money-grubbing rent hikes during some very financially bleak years. Market rates gives the landlord carte blanche because where one goes the rest will follow. Rent increases need to be in line with inflation if possible or the landlord must provide proof of why such an increase could be warranted.
And while I’m ranting, ALL of the structures have failed. The PRTB is a toothless wonder, there is not enough social housing and councils are under-resourced and have not got the staff to ensure that the private rental out there are even habitable.
Dead right, but there are way too many amateur landlords. You wouldnt pay to get your car fixed by an unqualified mechanic would you?
How are you supposed to find a good landlord amongst all the much though? You just have to hour for the best really
The only thing that matters is that these people are homeless and something needs to be done about it.
I don’t think they meant to suggest that the families might deserve their fate, but that root causes may be systemic and they need to be identified. Yes, something needs to be done about it, in terms of rehousing etc, but something needs to be done to prevent more homelessness. Otherwise we’d just be putting a bandaid over an axewound.
I agree entirely, but right now what really matters is getting these people off the streets before somebody else dies. It’s an emergency, if a bank was about to fail they would do something about it today. we need the same sense of urgency here.
tru dat
There will not be enough homes for people for the foreseeable future. Rents will continue to go through the roof because there are no checks and balances in place to prevent this. People will continue to have no option but to rent as they will never be able to afford a mortgage.
There are steps the government could take to address all these issues but (a) whatever they do will be too little too late (b) self interest (the sheer number of TDs who are also landlords) will stymie any moves to regulate the rental market. (c) more people will die.
This sickens me to my stomach. I can’t imagine the pain of living on the street as a family cause you have no where you can afford, so many of my own friends who are professionals that are in their 30’s have had to move home because of rent increases of upwards from 30% this year. FG and Labour truly do not care about kids or families. We need a new government of fresh thinkers who are motivated to helping the people of this country and moving us out of these repeated shames of the past into a future of fairness equality and financial stability.
Its very Dickensian to be putting your kids into care because you are homeless. Shocking state of affairs!
it is time to start squatting in an orgnaised structured way. holding onto the squats and putting empty places to use. time to start a scheme of non payment/boycott of landlords until laws are changed. if they up the rent, boycott all rent payments. this cannot go on.
Ireland gave over €637 million in overseas aid last year… how much aid went to help its own people?
€284. And 45 of that went on merkins for Macra na Feirme.
Proper management would mean we could do both. And we should do both. Overseas aid is not the thing to cut back on.
+1
It’s an emergency. In former times, under former governments, the Army would be brought in to help feed people, and empty houses would be taken and opened to house them.
there is a candlelight vigil out side the dáil at 5.30 tomorrow.