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NINE-YEAR-OLD Bradley was living in an emergency homeless hostel with his family when he pricked his finger on an old syringe.
The young child had been staying with his twin brother and their mother and father in an adult-only hostel in Dublin city after they became homeless.
His mother Claire told RTÉ News at One that Bradley had pricked his finger the morning after the family first arrived at the hostel.
“It was absolutely awful… not for families,” she said of the accommodation.
Claire was speaking from the families new temporary home – the High Park Family Hub in Drumcondra in north Dublin.
High Park was launched last month. At that time, the supported accommodation provided living space for 33 families who have been declared homeless.
Families are given wrap-around support during the time they spend at High Park, and are appointed staff who work with them and help them secure long-term alternative accommodation.
“It’s loads better,” said Claire. ”We’ve got our own space and it is just so much better than being [in the hostel].”
High Park is one of the first of the new Family Hubs – supported living facilities designed to get homeless families out of highly unsuitable hostel and B&B accommodation.
These hubs are supposed to entirely replace the use of hotels and B&Bs (except in extremely limited circumstances), however they have already come under criticism from homelessness campaigners.
A number of the hubs will be converted from hotels and B&Bs that have been used to house homeless families in the past.
For example, the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) – which manages the homeless services for the entire Dublin region – has taken out a five-year lease for Lynam’s Hotel on O’Connell Street.
This hotel – previously used to house homeless families and the site of a protest last August - is being renovated into a Family Hub.
The DRHE has also bought a separate B&B to be converted for this use, and is looking to lease more properties for this purpose. The end goal is to have 10 to 15 of these hubs in order to provide accommodation for about 500 families.
A spokesperson said that work was underway “to phase in the accommodation over the coming months”.
The new hubs have been slammed by Anthony Flynn, director of the Inner City Helping Homeless group, as a “re-branding” exercise.
Homeless charity Focus Ireland has also raised issues around the government’s long term plan for ending family homelessness.
Homeless hotels
One of the most talked about aspects of last year’s Government Rebuilding Ireland Housing Action plan was the commitment to ending the use of private hotels and B&Bs to house homeless families.
There were concerns voiced at the time that this would not be possible.
The use of hotels and B&Bs to house families has skyrocketed since 2014, as the number of people presenting as homeless shot up.
The problem is at its most acute in Dublin where demand for housing is highest.
Figures from the DRHE show that there were 361 homeless families (with 768 children) living in private hotels in July 2015. By last month that number had more than doubled to 801 families (with the 1,623 children).
Hotel accommodation is highly unsuitable – with many families not being afforded any proper cooking or cleaning facilities. Children having to sleep three to a bed, anti-social behaviour, damp and mould, bed bugs and mice are all common complaints raised.
Despite the numbers of homeless families continuing to rise, Housing Minister Simon Coveney has repeated the commitment to ending hotel use numerous times over the past number of months.
He told TheJournal.ie at the launch of High Park last month that the goal could be met.
“I think so, I think so. I mean it’s putting a lot of pressure on people but I think so,” he said when questioned directly about the timeline.
Coveney also repeated the assertion at the launch of the PRTB rent price report earlier this month, and has said it in numerous other interviews and speeches since last year.
He has said that this goal would be achieved through a combination of rapid-build housing units, HAP tenancies and these new Family Hubs.
‘Re-branding’?
The DRHE and the Housing Department have said that they are investing in the Family Hubs in order to move away from the highly unsuitable hotel use.
Despite hotels and B&Bs being converted into hubs in some cases, a spokesperson for the DRHE said all buildings would be renovated to become more family-suited, and would have on-site supports.
“The new family hubs will have the capacity to provide play space, cooking and laundry facilities and communal recreation supports,” the spokesperson said.
However, Anthony Flynn of ICHH last week slammed the hubs as a “re-branding” exercise and a way for officials to “cover up figures”.
“This will by no means help the situation, in fact it will make it worse. We will end up with overcrowded facilities that are not suited to means,” he said.
More moderate criticism has also come from homeless charity Focus Ireland.
Mike Allen – director of advocacy with the charity – told TheJournal.ie that the organisation welcomed any improvement in the standards of family accommodation.
“We have been very critical with the quality of some of the accommodation which has been available,” he said.
So anything that improves that is obviously a good thing for the families. So there’s a limit to how critical we can be about it.
However, Allen said the government was lacking a targeted strategy to get families out of homelessness long-term.
He said this was a cause of huge concern, and that investing significant time, funds and effort into these new family hubs wouldn’t help reduce the numbers.
“Is this sort of an assumption that we’re going to have large-scale problem of family homelessness for along period of time?,” Said Allen.
We’re very worried that there’s a risk here of the unintended effect of what’s happened is to normalise a high level of family homelessness without a proper underlying strategy.
End of hotel use?
Minister Simon Coveney said that the Family Hubs will be used to improve the quality of life of homeless families, while the other elements of the Housing Action Plan come into effect.
He has said repeatedly that he needs “time” before the housing output starts to meet the demand, and homeless numbers begin to reduce.
Allen said this “time” -where families will start to exit homelessness and the numbers will reduce – is as yet undefined by any government strategy.
Until then, Family Hubs are set to replace commercial hotels. The use of hotels and B&Bs to house homeless families (except in limited circumstances) may well be ended by July, said Allen.
However, if month-on-month trends continue, the number of homeless families in Ireland will be higher than ever.
“Where the criticism arises [of the July plan] from is the suggestion or the presentation of it as something else, something more monumental,” said Allen.
At High Park last month, nine-year-old Bradley and his brother spoke about how much better High Park was to live in than their last accommodation.
“It was like living in a basement there, but here I get my own room and I get to watch TV,” one of the boys said.
“It was like one room and a kitchen and there was no other families there and we did have no friends to speak to or anything,” said the other boy.
But here it’s better because we have our own rooms and our own beds.
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Anyone who genuinely is interested in supporting the force should want the bad ones removed, but we never hear the good stories. I’d like to tell a good story. One night my sister complained to a neighbor that his truck was parked in a way that blocked the street. He slashed her tires then ran after her husband with the knife. 6 Minutes later a van arrived. Prior incidents left my sister with zero faith in the Gardi and she told them that to their faces
The senior one gave her his personal mobile and told her if she was scared at any time to call him. He then walked closer to her, looked her in the eye and with a kind of steely determination said ”I’m not like the one you met on the road, I’m going to do everything I can to restore your faith in us”. He sent help every single time (in one case an armed colleague) to her house when the guy did some things to intimidate her.
They’d done a good job with our statements and talking to the judge to the point where as the senior officer said ”ok I’d like to call…” the judge said ”not necessary, this ones easy”. He terminated the guys license (thus livelihood) and sent him to prison for a year. I could tell 1-2 bad stories too, but they get heard on their own.
We sat there in a weird kind of shock, Jesus we actually got justice…
It should also be taken into account here that the legislation being utilised by Gardaí in these circumstances is completely out of date and from another era entirely. The politicians are quite happy to let the Gardaí take the flak here but many of these problems have been caused by a lack of political will to provide strong legislative support to our police to deal with such situations.
I once stopped a fella beating the bejasus outta his misses in town, she thanked me by jumping on my back and helped him beat me! Domestics are mad Ted!
Yeah you guys are right in a way, it’s hard to know how your intervention will be received and domestic violence is not always black and white. However, in these cases, the person being assaulted asked the gardai for assistance. They weren’t given that help. In fact as once of the case studies states, they were told not to ask for help the next time. Regardless of the type of assault the guards have a duty to protect us once a then call is made. Domestic violence is particularly abhorrent as the victim is left with the abuser in their own home, the guards should treat that situation with more gravity, not less.
The worst assaults happen behind closed doors not on our streets..
Actually I don’t want to hear about the good individuals in the force, I want the entire lot to change. If I was to say the one thing that had to go it would be arrogance. In my experience they treat the public like we are idiots and they treat victims like they are criminals. That’s a feature and an attitude throughout the entire force.
Really? You’ve met all 13,000 guards eh?
“DV is often reciprocal. in other words there are 2 of them in a relationship at it.”
I don’t know why this comment was downvoted, the real statistics are that DV is around 60% reciprocal, with the remainder evenly split between men and women.
the biggest problem with domestic cases is probably the reluctance of the witnesses.
There is obviously a serious issue regarding DV, and the follow up of reporting same, in our country and I’m glad this report has highlighted the issue. However, I think the Gardaí get a lot of unfair criticism in general. I must say any dealings I have had with Gardaí have been mostly positive.
By far the most serious issue is the massive underreporting of female on male domestic violence.
Nothing will change because laziness and a couldn’t care less attitude is systemic in the entire organisation . Too many senior gardai paid big salaries and do nothing and nobody oversees what exactly they contribute to policing
Proper investment in reorganisation, infrastructure and new management (why waste time training dinosaurs?) will give us a police service we can be proud of and one we can all respect.
The men and women who serve us need to have confidence that their efforts are recognised, and that the old method of district policing where the senior ranks play sheriff needs to be eliminated.
It’s a small country. Do we really need that many divisions?
Once there are children involved,social workers should visit unannounced!! So many children have fallen through the net, it makes me sick!!
Well maybe, but this would face a lot of backlash too, as it would be seen as increasing the rights of social workers to interfere with families.
What exactly is the problem with saying there’s two of them in it?
Depends on who you say it to and whether you use it as an excuse to avoid dealing with the situation. It’s dismissive, that’s the problem.
There is no problem with it but when an arrest is made it is usually a male who is arrested which is what feminists crave.
The other fact which they ignore is that almost 60% of all domestic abuse is mutual.
lol…
Bandon Garda station have some really interesting tapes.
just doin me duty…
Thanks Snorre,
Hang on to those tapes for me, could get awkward if they went on the missing list.
those idiots should be sacked for negligence
i can’t believe most of the comments here, i was ready to go on how the guards treat women and dv but to see most people agreeing with the guards blaming the women saying ah if you jump in SHE’LL only start hitting you and the one that realy annoys me i bet ye she hits him and the dont annoy him let him sleep it off. No wounder the guards dont think domestic violence is a crime when most of society in ireland doesnt think its a crime,Its a sad day for me today to reliase this as the people i know are disgusted by this yet most comments here does not reflect that, i realy thought ireland had grown up.
More gutter press journalism, you’d get more accurate unbiased news in the Beano than The Journal.
Actually I think this series is quite refreshing and it’s probably the only outlet that could report this way. Can you see the times being effective? We have a problem with the police force. No harm in shining a light on it.
Hard to say whether it isn’t around as much today maybe, but there has always been an inherent inner hidden aggression in the Irish psyche I think. We can flip from smile to punch in the blink of an eye, especially the older generations. That Oirish overly friendly thing was always a bit of a fake psychotic act I thought. How people act when the doors are closed is something else entirely.
I love Ryan Carrols story
What a safe place to be to post comments like two sides to every story , pair if them in it, etc ,, this attitude leaves the victim male or female with even less hope and more insecurity , but it makes on lookers feel comfortable and allows abuse to become a way of life , some times it’s important to reach out that little bit more
The majority of domestic violence incidents are reciprocal, whether you like it or not.
Interim Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan said she was aware that some victims had felt let down by the gardaí.
Robert Olson, Chief Inspector of the Garda Síochána says, We had about 11,000 domestic violence incidents and there were only 287 cases where somebody got arrested. That needs to be looked at very closely, we’re concerned about that.”
Kindly get a grip Noirin,,,,,,,, According to the figures given above, the ”Some victims” that you are referring to shockingly relates to 10,713 reported incidents of Domestic Violence for which there was no arrest.
How in God’s name can you even stand there and try to play down such an enormous figure to make it sound like only a handful of people were affected?
I think you’ll find that these figures speak for themselves,,,
It is my own personal opinion that for even just 1 incident of Domestic violence it should be enough to see the perpetrator charged and face the prospect of jail!
The problem is that the new legislation they wish to bring in here is deeply anti-male.
All abuse is wrong and over 50% of all IPV is against males, yet the new proposed legislation is named,
“Violence against women”.
Wake up and see that this feminist mindset will ultimately cause more heart ache than anything else.
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