How long can someone live in a hotel room with 2 or 3 kids?
By Aideen O'Flaherty
THE PRESIDENT of a local St Vincent de Paul (SVP) conference, with more than 30 years’ experience working with families in Clondalkin and Ballyfermot, has said that the homelessness crisis is the at “the worst point” that she has ever seen, following the latest homeless figures which have shown a continued increase in the number of families in emergency accommodation.
Homeless people in Dublin made up 67 per cent of the homeless population in the country, according to figures for February which were recently released by the Department of Housing, while 1,329 families in Dublin were registered as homeless last February, of which 812 were single parent families.
The Abberley is used as a homeless hub
Nationally, the figures showed a 40 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of homeless families since figures began in 2014, with the largest increase being in Dublin with the registration of 138 families seeking to access homelessness services last February.
Marie Cronin, the SVP area president for Clondalkin and Ballyfermot, said: “We look after homeless families who are in hotels in the local area.
“We have a lot of people in there, and we have some people who’ve been there for 16 or 17 months – it’s horrendous.
“How long can someone live in a hotel room with two or three kids?”
A total of 2,801 dependent children were listed as part of the 1,329 families that were registered as homeless in Dublin last month, which is the highest number of homeless children in the country.
Ms Cronin added: “It absolutely is at the worst point.
Never seen anything like this
“I was in my early 20s when the houses in Neilstown were built, and I went in and set up an SVP branch in Neilstown and Ronanstown, but I’ve never seen anything like this before.
“It’s the lack of housing, and a lack of education.
“You can’t, in a one-bedroom unit, do your homework when there are three other kids, and when these kids get to secondary school they’ll be trying to do their homework with the sound of a baby crying in the background.
“They’re just doing the basics to get them through to tomorrow – it’s an awful situation.”
Shortly after his department released the February homeless figures, Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy, said: “I know that the crisis we have in homelessness is very distressing but I hope people understand that every day a huge amount of work is being put in by our teams to both prevent people from entering emergency accommodation and to exit people into sustainable tenancies as quickly as possible.
“They are doing incredible work and the government will continue to make all necessary resources available to them.
“Tackling homelessness is a priority for this government. My priority as minister in the first instance is to get people off the streets and to get children out of hotels.”
TAGS news
