The doorway on Molesworth Street (top) where Jonathan Corrie died in 2014 (bottom) old Passport Office also on Molesworth Street.
Anon writes:
On the same street where Jonathan Corrie died sleeping rough the government can find €5m to renovate an office space. It is just shy of a year since Mr. Corrie passed away. People are still sleeping on the street in large numbers and those earning but struggling to cover rent could join them.
(RollingNews.ie)
Conor McGregor
Further to the homeless situation in Ireland…
Conor McGregor writes:
“Tonight I will be in The Foundry in Waterford. Saturday, I will be in the Savoy in Cork. Monday and Tuesday, I have gathered my team-mates for a Q and A in the Wright Venue in Dublin.”
“I am donating €50,000 from these events to help boost resources of those who are fighting the homeless crisis in Ireland, as we head into the colder weather. €25,000 will go to the hard-working Simon Community homeless charity. This €25,000 will fund the mobile health clinic for a full year so the people in need can get the treatment they need, when they need it.”
“The other €25,000 I will donate to Focus Ireland which will go towards the Family Services Division which helps family’s in crisis move on from homelessness.”
“I put time into researching both the Simon Community and Focus Ireland charities. The work of both these organisations is unparalleled with the homeless crisis in our country.”
“We have put together a four-day event across the country. Meet fans. Have some fun. Celebrate life, and also help build money to put towards this major crisis we have in our country. See you at the events!”
FIGHT! YAY!
Buy tickets for Monday and Tuesday’s events here
Eamonn Farrell/Rollingnews.ie
Newstalk reports:
More than nine out of ten rental properties are priced beyond the reach of those on State supports.
A study by the Simon Communities found that just 7% of properties available in 11 locations during August were priced at or below Rent Supplement or Housing Assistance Payments levels.
Single people fared particularly badly with just two properties affordable to them in total, but none in any of the five major city centres.
Just 7% of rentals accessible to people on benefits (Newstalk)
Previously: ‘I Don’t Know How Santa Is Going To Get In’
Dublin City Councillor Tina MacVeigh, of People Before Profit, top, at Dublin City Council meeting last night
Dublin City Councillor Éilis Ryan, of the Workers’ Party, writes:
“Last night Dublin City Councillors guillotined through, without debate, three emergency motions supporting the building of modular housing and the suspension of normal planning and procurement procedures in order to do this.”
“Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Fein refused to allow debate on the motions, and refused requests to hold an emergency meeting to allow proper discussion of this critical issue. Modular housing should certainly be considered as part of overall attempts to address the housing crisis; but not by making those who are currently homeless even more vulnerable by rushing through ill-thought-out proposals.”
Anyone?
Meanwhile, on Berkeley Street, Dublin 7…
The Peter McVerry Trust has opened Ireland’s first youth café for children and young people who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless.
Fair play, in fairness.
Opening of Ireland’s first Youth Cafe for children and youths in homelessness (Peter McVerry Trust)
First 150 modular housing units for homeless to be fast-tracked (Irish Times, September 30, 2015)
Previously: Absolutely Prefabulous
Pics: Peter McVerry Trust
Journalist Evelyn O’Rourke spoke to a family of four who were made homeless after their landlord’s home was repossessed by a bank, for the Today With Seán O’Rourke show on RTÉ Radio One this morning.
The family is now living in a B&B in Dublin city centre which is housing 40 homeless families in total. The 40 families share one kitchen which has one cooker – four rings – and two microwaves. The families are provided with breakfast.
Sandra, who is pregnant, Brendan and their children, aged seven and three, live in one en suite bedroom in the B&B.
During the report Ms O’Rourke spoke to Sandra and Brendan’s seven-year-old daughter.
“I don’t like it here. I mean, I’m not looking forward to Christmas. I don’t know how Santa is going to get in. And I don’t know where we’re gonna go for Halloween. Maybe we could trick or treat around our nanny’s. I don’t know.
[In the morning] I am sad and worried and I feel, cause when you’re just going down for breakfast, you’re just sitting there, with your Da, eating your breakfast with no friends or anything.”
“No, I don’t tell them {schoolmates]. People just say to me, ‘what’s it like over in your new house? and all that stuff. They say that. I just keep saying ‘it’s ok’ and all.”
Listen back in full here
Pic: Focus Ireland
Members of Housing Action now at the Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin in May
Free this weekend?
Dr Rory Hearne writes:
There will be young children tonight going to bed in a strange place with strangers all around them. They will be watching their parents, stressed and worried. They will probably walk the streets of our capital city with their parents looking for a homeless service where they might get some warm food.
They will look at other children going to normal homes and wish they could go too. Tonight they will sleep in emergency accommodation in a hostel or B&B. Tomorrow night is likely to be somewhere else. They will go to school tomorrow and try concentrate and play with the other children.
A similar situation faces 1,500 children living in emergency accommodation across the country. Thousands more live with families on the brink of homelessness, facing another unaffordable rent hike or home repossession. It is only a matter of time before one or more of these children die on our streets as happened with a homeless man last week. It is absolutely correct to call the situation facing these families as a ‘national emergency’ and a ‘humanitarian crisis’.
It is a clear breach of Article 27 of the UN Covention on the Rights of the Child to which Ireland is a signatory. Article 27 recognises the right of every child “to a standard of living adequate for child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development” and obliges the Irish state to “take appropriate measures to…implement this right and shall in the case of need, provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing”.
The Minister responsible for dealing with housing, Alan Kelly and the Taoiseach both state that they are doing all they can to solve the crisis and that resources are not an issue. The growing numbers of families presenting homeless – over 70 a month now in Dublin alone – shows that this is not true. It is not being given the political or funding priority required to address it.
That is why this coming weekend academics, policy experts, housing activists, trade unionists and housing charities are coming together to organize a public conference to discuss and highlight the many solutions that exist to address the crisis.
The conference, titled ‘Towards A Real Housing Strategy’, is being organised by ‘Housing Action Now’ and will discuss topics related to housing such as homelessness, rent regulation, tenant’s rights, funding models for social and affordable housing, and the role of NAMA.
But this is not just a conference for policy experts or activists – it is also open to the public and aims to provide people with a greater understanding of the causes of the crisis and possible solutions.
What is clear is that there are solutions to the housing crisis but there needs to be more public involvement (protest, contacting your TD and the media) in putting pressure on the government to immediately implement them. For example, increasing the social housing budget from the planned 500 million to 1.5bn, starting immediately would fast track an additional 10,000 permanent social housing units in the next year and address the immediate crisis and begin to address the wider housing waiting list.
FIGHT!
Oh.
At the European Federation of National Organisations Working With The Homeless in Dublin Castle this morning.
Peter McVerry Trust tweetz:
Clear spike in presentation of families to homeless services in Dublin.
But what about that dip?
Readers may recall how, following the death of Jonathan Corrie close to the Dáil on December 1, 2014, emergency accommodation was set up in the Civil Defence headquarters at the Esplanade, Wolfe Tone Quay, Dublin 7.
At the time, Cathal Morgan, of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, told RTÉ:
“Tomorrow [Friday, December 12], our colleagues in the Civil Defence will be opening up 20 beds. That means 70 beds out of the 260 promised will be in place. By the 23rd of December, we will have those 260 beds in place.”
Readers may also recall how, in late January, Rosie Naughton, from Hope4Homeless, spoke to a homeless man called Richie in Dublin. Richie told Rosie that it was his understanding that the emergency beds, rolled out in the wake of Jonathan Corrie’s death, would be removed over the following two to three weeks.
Richie told Rosie he was told this by the Simon Community, Focus Ireland and Merchant’s Quay.
Anyone?
Previously: The Best We Can Do
“The number of adults accessing homeless services in Dublin is at its highest since current record-keeping began in 2010, the latest figures show. The numbers have surpassed 3,000 for the first time, with 3,095 adults in emergency accommodation in the period between April and June this year.”
“This compares with 2,987 adults in the first three months of the year…On the night of June 30th there were 1,975 adults in emergency accommodation accompanied by more than 1,100 children – a 40 per cent increase on the number of adults when compared with the same night in June 2014, when there were 1,414 adults and about 560 children.”
More than 3,000 adults accessing homeless services (Kitty Holland, Irish Times)
Graham Hughes/Rollingnews.ie
Labour TD Joanna Tuffy
Stephen O’Brien, in yesterday’s Sunday Times, reported that, according to Labour TD Joanna Tuffy, some homeless charities – specifically Focus Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust – need to ‘step up to the plate’ in relation to the homeless crisis.
Mr O’Brien reported:
Joanna Tuffy, a Labour TD, claimed two of the country’s largest homeless charities, Focus Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust, should be doing more to provide social housing given their capacity and expertise.
The Housing Finance Agency (HFA) has confirmed that just five out of 13 charities registered as approved housing bodies (AHBs) have applied to it for funding. Focus Ireland secured AHB status earlier this year, but has not applied for funding. The Peter McVerry Trust has not applied for AHB status.
“At the risk of agreeing with the taoiseach, funding doesn’t seem to be the problem – there is plenty of money around,” said Barry O’Leary, chief executive of the HFA. “We have facilities to lend up to €500m – €300m for housebuilding, €200m for house purchases. We are open for business, we are very keen to lend, and we can lend European Investment Bank money fixed for 25 years at about 3.25%, which is an absolutely phenomenal offering.”
“…Pat Doyle, chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust, said he was disappointed with Tuffy’s comments. He said the trust is in the process of meeting the HFA’s rigorous requirements for recognition, and is currently buying 55 homes in Dublin using a mixture of commercial finance and business donations.”
“Tuffy said increasing the rent supplement cap – as suggested by Focus and the McVerry Trust – would simply drive rents up further. ‘The issue is supply,’ she said. ‘Some AHBs are stepping up to the plate and borrowing from the Housing Finance Agency to fund social housing, but two major players have been slower than others – Focus Ireland and the McVerry Trust. They are criticising [the government] but they need to step up to the plate themselves. Look at what smaller organisations like Cluid, Tuath and the Oaklee Housing Trust have done.”
In response to the Sunday Times story, Focus Ireland wrote on its Facebook…
Meanwhile outside the Trust Homelessness Services on Bride Road, Dublin 8 this morning…
.@alankellylabour says #homeless problem is “unprecedented”, says more cooperation from local authorities needed pic.twitter.com/Jkr6HHVFRf
— Brian O’Donovan (@BrianODTV3) August 24, 2015
Charities not using homeless cash (The Sunday Times)
Pic: Rollingnews.ie
How much.
Buswells Hotel, Dublin
Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Environment and Local Government, Barry Cowen TD (centre), with Dublin City Councillors Deirdre Heney and Paul McAuliffe launching a new Fianna Fail policy document entitled ‘Generation Rent – A New Deal for Renters and Landlords’.
The document [at link below] sets out a number of new policy initiatives that “will help people struggling in the rental market, ensure quality accommodation and rent certainty”. Costings above.
Fight!
Fianna Fáil outlines new proposals to tackle rent crisis (Fianna Fail)
(Mark Stedman/Photocall ireland)
Meanwhile….
There are 100,000 people on housing waiting lists nationally, more than 42,000 in Dublin alone. This didn’t happen overnight. Lots of these people have been waiting on a home for ten years or more. Lack of affordable housing is not a ‘problem’ for government, they depend on it to drive up rent, property and land prices.
This government has figured out that to have a reasonable chance of reelection, it need only pander to its core base of the comfortable class, many of whom are landlords or have a vested interest in a booming property market (as do many TDs themselves). People on housing waiting lists don’t vote for Fine Gael.
Those that did vote Labour in the hope that their needs would be addressed have been rightly stuffed as Labour presided over an 82% cut to social housing provision budgets between 2007 and 2014. This chronic under-funding coupled with the more than €170 million euro of cuts to rent supplement since 2010 has created a whole new class of homeless people.
Homelessness Is The Plan (Ramhorne Republic)
Meanwhile…
The victims of this dysfunctional market include families forced to live with their in-laws or in temporary accommodation, and professionals who cannot afford to buy in metropolitan Dublin, and are pushed ever further out into the commuter belt. There is also a growing homelessness problem. In a country where home ownership is the norm, or at least the aspiration, for most families, housing could become an acute political problem ahead of a general election within about six months.
Irish recovery exposes acute housing shortage (Financial Times, behind paywall)