Costello accuses govt of abandoning the homeless
Posted on September 07, 2010 at 11:57 AM
The Annual Report by the Simon Community, showing that the number of people sleeping rough and accessing emergency homeless services had risen 20 per cent over the past 18 months, has been described as alarming by Deputy Joe Costello Labour TD for Dublin Central.” I experience the rise of homelessness in my own constituency which houses much of the emergency accommodation in the city “said Deputy Costello. “The Government in its Homeless Strategy had given a commitment to end long-term homelessness by the end of this year.
This strategy was always naive and unworkable. It is now in shreds”, he said.
We learn from the Dublin Simon Annual Report that last year 2,450 people accessed their services and in the first six months of 2010 they had already worked with over 1,800 people. The rise in demand was mostly evident in frontline services with people presenting to their rough-sleeper team and accessing emergency accommodation- a huge jump of 30 per cent. Numbers presenting to its emergency accommodation team were 156 per month in the first quarter, up from 116 a year earlier. Dublin Simon Community provides a range of shelter-style emergency accommodation to people seeking a bed. It also provides treatment services for drug-users and support for people seeking long-term housing.
“I agree with Dublin Simon Community which state in their report that there is a critical need for the Government to deliver the 1,200 units of accommodation it had promised as part of its policy to end homelessness by the end of 2010. It is a disgrace that many houses and apartments are lying idle all over the country yet there are still hundreds of people stuck in emergency-style accommodation or sleeping rough. People are moved from one emergency location to another with no prospect of a home.
The winter is fast approaching. The homeless are the most vulnerable in our society and particularly so in the middle of a recession. The Government must urgently revisit its Homeless Strategy in the light of the worsening homeless situation.” Concluded Deputy Costello
