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TWO PEOPLE WHO have in the past availed of homelessness services in Dublin city died while sleeping rough in tents in the Phoenix Park over the Christmas period, it’s emerged.
The deaths, which occurred separately, were recorded late last month, according to sources with knowledge of the events.
Responding to a query from TheJournal.ie the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) confirmed there had been three deaths of people who had availed of homeless services in the city over the Christmas period.
According to figures from the DRHE – which is operated by Dublin City Council – there were at least 50 deaths among people who accessed homeless services in Dublin across last year.
To date there have been relatively few cases of Covid-19 reported among those who are homeless in Dublin and work is under way to ensure that the third wave of the virus doesn’t hit this at-risk group.
Ahead of what’s set to be the coldest night of the winter so far and amid the continuing surge in coronavirus cases across the wider community, those sleeping rough on the streets and in tents are being encouraged to take up vacant emergency accommodation beds in the coming weeks.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, clinical lead for Covid-19 and homelesness in Dublin city Dr Austin O’Carroll said that there may be a heightened risk for those who share tents with others.
“We need to persuade people sleeping in tents to take up the offers of accommodation. Sleeping rough is extremely bad for their health.
“Rough sleepers die younger due to the effects of living in such poor circumstances as well as the risks of overdose, assault and untreated health conditions. I also believe there is risk of the spread of Covid as those sharing tents live in very crowded circumstances.”
Dr O’Carroll said the Covid-19 risk will exacerbate the already high risk to the health and wellbeing of those who sleep in tents.
“It is now the dead of winter, we are in our third wave of Covid-19 and a national lockdown has been implemented.
“It’s important that anyone who is working with, or simply knows, someone sleeping in a tent encourages them even more to take up a bed that is there for them. They will be safer all round.”
Campaigners have called for urgent action to address the number of homeless deaths last year, and the HSE and Department of Housing has commissioned a “comprehensive review” of deaths in homeless services in 2020, which is expected to be completed early this year.
The DRHE has also said it is concerned at the “big increase” in the use of tents throughout the city in recent times.
In its update to councillors in December, it said this increase in the use of tents had come at a time when there are an “unprecedented” number of unused emergency accommodation beds in the city each night since the summer.
As of the end of October – the latest month for which some figures are available – there were 82 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across homeless services in Dublin. Dr O’Carroll said that since March there had also been three deaths recorded.
“In March, we set about creating a coordinated response to this,” he said. “It’s involved lots of organisations.”
Shielding, or cooconing, has been provided for the homeless persons most at risk of getting seriously ill from Covid-19. At the end of October, 239 homeless individuals were residing in shielding facilities in Dublin.
According to data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, outbreaks of Covid-19 have also remained low nationally in recent months.
From August until the end of 2020, there were just 15 cases notified from 7 outbreaks in homeless facilities across the country.
Dr O’Carroll said: “We’ve had an extremely low number of cases. And we thought we’d be among the worst-affected sectors. Our approach has been effective so far, and we’re hoping we survive the next month.
There’s been three deaths. We thought it could be 20 at best and 30 at worst by this point. One death is too many but the efforts so far are a tribute to all the work that’s been done.
According to the latest Department of Housing figures, the total number of people in emergency accommodation was 8,484 in November. Of these, 6,032 were adults with 4,536 of these single adults.
And, according to the Dublin Region Homeless Executive’s rough sleeper count, there were 139 people sleeping on the streets of the capital late last year.
The street outreach team, operated by the Dublin Simon Community, operates every day. The DRHE said this team “meets with people sleeping rough, including people in tents, to support/encourage them into the available emergency accommodation”.
A spokesperson added: “The Outreach Service works in close collaboration with the Housing First Programme. The team also bring sandwiches and snacks along with clean clothes, hand sanitisers and face masks for anyone sleeping rough.”
Tent dangers
Tony Duffin, CEO of the Ana Liffey Drug Project, told TheJournal.ie that over the years he had seen the risks people living in tents in cities can face.
“Having worked with people who are homeless since the early 90s initially in London and then in Ireland, I have known of people who have had their tents burnt while they are still in them; been physically assaulted in tents; been victims of domestic violence in tents; been sexually assaulted in tents; died of fatal overdoses in tents; and other such disturbing incidents befalling people who are homeless whilst living in tents.
So you see, providing people who sleep rough with tents addresses risks associated with exposure to cold wet weather; however, it does not address a raft of other potential harms people on the streets are exposed to whilst isolated in a tent.
Duffin said that it’s of vital importance that people are encouraged to take up beds that are available, particularly as the weather turns colder and in the context of the rise in Covid-19 cases.
Dr O’Carroll added his aim is to ensure that an opportunity is taken now to arrange accommodation for all those who are sleeping rough while there is capacity.
However, he did acknowledge the challenges involved in persuading some individuals to take up the offer of accommodation.
“There’s a variety of reasons why they might turn it down,” he said.
“It could be addiction issues, it could be mental health issues, it could be plenty of of things. But there’s so many negative health effects of living in tents. And Covid is now an extra risk on top of that.
We’ve an opportunity now. There’s three main reasons now to make sure rough sleepers get accommodation. It’s cold, there’s Covid and we have the opportunity to get people off the streets and into beds. They can get proper treatment if they need it, and the kind of wraparound supports that are essential.
This situation [with Covid] could change over the next two-to-three weeks. It’s going to get worse. We have beds for isolation – but no positive cases in isolation at this time. We have plans in place and are confident. Everyone will benefit if people can access these kinds of supports.
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I’m usually not shocked by his antics…but THIS one took me out. Could not believe what I was hearing. By the way, it’s the weekend. A glass of Dettol with a hint of sanitizer. Cheers.
@Optimus Prime: he is now saying it’s fake news and he was being sarcastic. Moron in Chief.
@Optimus Prime: l love DT the best comedian on TV
@Optimus Prime: I stopped following him on Twitter, it was making me too happy
@Optimus Prime: Glass of Dettol with some sanitizer, AKA Buckfast. That stuff will take the paint off a gate!
@Optimus Prime: lock him up
They need to film him getting dragged out of the White House by the ears – genuinely surprised he is still alive.
@Mark: the reality is though in todays world this is every journalists wet dream, because of the clicks and attentions he gets. A self fulfilling prophecy while the world burns.
Broadcast the daily briefings on the comedy channel instead.
It’s his evening re-election rally.
@John fitzpatrick: Yep, and if he does get re-elected, I’d say the reaction in here will be priceless. And in fairness, if he loses then that reaction will also be priceless. It really is incredible how invested in this people are here, they take it to heart.
I’m not quite sure how to react, but I’ll continue to watch and chortle my way through it all looking it all :D
@CryptoWilf: well he impacts us all as he tries to destabilise the EU etc. Plus I feel sorry for the Americans who aren’t in his cult. They have a miserable quality of life with their dickensian working conditions and expensive healthcare. Constant erosion of civil rights also. If he gets in again I guarantee he’ll launch a nuclear war. It would be his lifelong fantasy complete.
@Sandra Duffy: Wow, I’ve had to screeshot that comment, start a nuclear war, really? From what I remember hearing at the time he won the election, he should have already started a nuclear war by now, no?
For those who aren’t in his cult, you do realise that the main Democrat seats of power are the big cities in America (LA, New York, Chicago, etc.), the working conditions in those places weren’t created by Trump, and in fact he is starting to gain popularity with non-white voters in those cities, particularly blacks, due to the policies he’s enacted to get them jobs and reduce the amount of them in prisons.
Look up the walk away movement, you’ll find many of their videos on YouTube, they are ex Democrats, many of them non-white who have finally become aware and are walking away from the Democatic party.
Why would Trump’s lifelong fantasy be to start a war, in particular a nuclear war? From what I can see, he’s actually going out of his way to not be a warmonger (not to say that he doesn’t sabre rattle a fair bit).
You seem be heavily influenced by the left leaning media (you can’t deny that both print and broadcast media here and in other places has a left leaning bent). I was the same, and previously saw the world in ways it appears that you do, until I started to pay attention and began looking past the “news” I was being drip fed.
After that I started seeing that fake news really was a thing, and that Trump wasn’t wrong about everything (he is wrong about many things in fairness). A good place to start learning more is with a dude called Tim Pool on YT, he’s a quite left leaning dude who was honest enough to open his eyes to the reality of things and is now much fairer. He will definitely lambast Trump or any other Republican if they act the ginnet, but he will also give them a fair shake.
Look up Dr. Karlyn Borysenko, a very left leaning individual who believed all the anti Trump crap that the media fed her, until she attended a Trump rally to prove to herself just how terrible the orange man and his supporters are, except it had the completely opposite effect, to the point where she now intends to vote for Trump in the upcoming election.
It’s up to you of course, all I’m saying is that you should do you own independent research, don’t believe what I’m saying, fair enough, but also don’t just blindly believe what media is telling you either.
Anyway, I wish you well on your journey, and I really do hope that you’ll approach what I’ve said with an open mind and give it a fair shake, I think if you can look beyond the “orange man bad” agenda that the media pushes and open your eyes, you’ll see that yes, Trump is very far from perfect, but he’s also very far from the crazy dictator that the media make him out to be.
I hope that you, or anyone else reading this comment is open minded enough to go and look up the stuff I’ve mentioned, it may not change your mind but I’d hope at least that it will open your eyes, even just a little bit.
@CryptoWilf: Well written comment, but there is no way that Trump’s support in the African American community has increased. There is no real evidence or local election results that prove that. Where I live, the African American vote has been instrumental in overturning a republican governor and more recently a republican/conservative state supreme justice.
Joe Biden wasn’t my first choice but ultimately it was African American votes in Carolina that revitalized Biden’s campaign and overturned Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. Biden seems to be able to motivate African American voters to turn out to vote, African American votes were instrumental in Obama getting a second term and it was their lack of motivation and lack of turnout that cost Hillary Clinton the 2016 election
@CryptoWilf: He’s got two lunatics at his side that believe in The Rapture. I’d say a nuclear war isn’t a possibility with Mr Paragon Drinker.
@CryptoWilf: Maybe you should open yours a bit wider. You have done the donald style, hide the facts with success that was not due to him but he claims responsibility for.
I have listened and researched him and he is terrible, a narcissist, a liar, in the old US terms a Carpetbagger.
Firstly, he’s their president, of course they should broadcast it. Secondly, If people want to watch it of course they should broadcast it.
It can be broadcast by other means anyway, the legacy media have serious notions about their importance.
@Gordon Comstock: broadcast the experts and cut him out would be my suggestion
@Dave O’Keeffe: Who get to decide?
@Gordon Comstock:
The public are following the advice of the president, and die –
theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/coronavirus-cure-kills-man-after-trump-touts-chloroquine-phosphate
He needs to be held accountable for these deaths.
@Gordon Comstock: The US have way too much faith in their so called “leader” anyway. They have always immortalized and idolized their presidents. They’re meant to be elected representatives not rulers or leaders anyway.
@Declan Moran: who gets to decide what? The whole show will be on a .gov site. News channels should just show the experts live and air relevant comments from the president afterwards.
Seriously, if I was an American I would be mortified that this tool was my president. No doubt some of his sycophants will try the disinfectant “cure.”
What he sais last night was beyond dumb. It was frankly dangerous
@Brian Dunne: bang & the dirt is gone
@Brian Dunne: Its like watching Spitting Image but the satire is scarily real.
@Brian Dunne: it would overwhelm the health system more
@Brian Dunne: It would have been dangerous if it were a serious policy suggestion, which it clearly wasn’t.
@josephsample: so what should reporters do from now on? Ask him..”are you serious mr.president?” or “are you joking mr.president?” after every thing he says.
The guy is beyond ridiculous now and he is losing support.
@Ruth: I wonder is Barry Scott part of the Public Health team in the U.S lol
@josephsample: He basically said “Drink bleach” on live television.its dangerous on any level. So your saying he’s not stupid,just pure evil?
we’ve already had a Chloroquine death from that nonsense. He’s not going to have any supporters left at this rate.
I’d say he’d be good craic to go for a few pints with.
@Darren Lambe: He doesn’t drink. Well you could drink a pint and he could drink some Dettol.
Don’t forget the light…lots of light.
I cant listen to the ramblings of this oaf for the past month…..
@Brian Murphy: he’s the biggest clown that has ever been elected. To be honest i don’t trust anything he says, but i think he would be good in a comedy show
Yes they need to stop showing them. Dangerous misinformation night after night. Lie after lie after lie and barely challenged. A journalist needs to stand up and call him a sociopathic dangerous liar to his face on live television. What an absolute clown, what a horrible man, what an absolute moron.
@Connoroconner: Either stop broadcasting them, or, way better, get journalists in that press core that will seriously pin him up against the wall on the stuff he comes out with.
He’s getting away with murder at these briefings. Anytime a journalist asks a hard question he just rants about them being fake news and he’s off the hook somehow.
There needs to be a boycott of some kind because this guy is making a total farce of the executive branch.
@ihcalaM: the journalists need to work together. If one asks a tough question and gets the fake news reply the next needs to ask the exact same question and so on. At the very least it’ll highlight his unwillingness to answer
@Dave O’Keeffe: 100 % agree. He’s clearly abusing the integrity of the journalists
@ihcalaM: There has been some co-operation between reporters from different cable networks. A couple of weeks ago, a female reporter who read back Trump’s previous C-19 bull**** to him (and to which he responded that the question was “threatening” and “nasty”) and who Trump ranted at, refused to let continue and then blamed for using up other reporters time was handed back the microphone by the next reporter Trump accepted to speak. The body language of the male reporter handing the microphone to the female reporter spoke volumes. Unmistakable contempt for Trump.
@ihcalaM: If a journalist asks him an honest question, he freaks out and bars them
They elected him they can have him. Don’t broadcast on TV here wasting TV licence fee. If you wish to hear what he has to say its available on Internet.
@barry moore: 100% agreed. US news is available throughout Europe on CNN. There is no need to repeat it ad nauseum on BBC, Euronews, and all other stations around the clock.
I missed the bit where Don said that people should inject themselves with detol etc as people and media are suggesting…
@Gary O CONNOR: he did say it
@Gary O CONNOR:
As you know, he didn’t say that a person should ‘inject themselves’. And, as you know, nobody is saying he did say that. As you know, Trump suggested that injecting a person who has Covid-19 with disinfectant could work, that it should be researched and tried. The danger is his many idiotic supporters might just try a DIY job on themselves, hence Dettol/Lysol issuing a warning today.
As we know, you’re trying to be clever and you’re not looking that way. Seriously, you support this unhinged lunatic??
@Gary O CONNOR: Curious, because the woman medical expert sitting to the side of Trump’s podium (who name I can never remember) looked mortified.
@David A. Murray: Dr. Birx, I think
@David A. Murray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLjNSFxluTs
@Skybloo: Thanks. I can never remember the correct spelling of her name.
@Gary O CONNOR:
There was no sarcasm there, hjust idiocy. He was talking to his own advisors.
“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?
So it’d be interesting to check that.”
@Gary O CONNOR: (He did not specify a brand. He wondered if injecting disinfectant could cure coronavirus.)
American right of free speech annoys goose-stepping journalists
@Richard Russell: Free speech does not give you the right to falsely scream out that there’s a fire in a crowded cinema.
@David Jordan: In America, it does, actually. That commonly misused quotation was a legally non-binding comment made by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes before a notoriously pro-censorship ruling was handed down by the court, sending an anti-war activist to jail in 1919.
That 1919 ruling has since been overturned in Brandenburg v. Ohio 1969, and though it might be tested in court, there is no longer any restriction on screaming out that there’s a fire in a crowded theatre.
@ihcalaM: Good article on it here for anyone weirdly interested in US 1st amendment law
@ihcalaM: Thanks for the link. A good article. An interesting counterpoint to the phrase I used, gives me something to consider.
His portions of it yes.
Leave the experts and people who know what they’re talking about. Having him show up, throw out a few “lots of people are saying” and “maybe we should do X” doesn’t help. With the amount of mental gymnastics people are doing to to defend what he said yesterday, it’s obvious they need to make sure his suggestions and potential solutions are kept behind closed doors, rather than trying to spring them out live on for people to latch onto no matter how ridiculous they sound.
Simon Harris would be a great advisor for Trump
These are propaganda broadcasts for supreme leader Trump. He hogs 63 % of the talking time next to 10 % for Birks and 5 % for Fauci. People are dying and health care workers are STILL vastly short on PPE and yet he makes everything about him as he yells at reporters asking him fair questions. They really should not be broadcast live but delayed and fact checked obviously as he tells lie on top of lie. Unfortunately Fox TV will always continue to air them live as they are squarely in his corner.
Don’t be silly. The networks can’t get enough of him. It seems that 7 or if 10 headlines for the last year began with the same word ‘Trump’. He is gold to them. I, for one, would be delighted if they would just give it a rest even for one bleepin day.
@Morning Gus: 7 out of 10. (Mea culpa, Edit button needed journal)
We should encourage his supporters to inject themselves and we should provide mobile injection centres to make this possible.
How has he not been removed from office by the American people. He is not fit to serve. He’s an International laughing stock. He’s clearly a squirming con man. Nothing he says is true.
Is Trump is a complete oaf? Yes. Did Trump suggest that people inject bleach directly into their own bodies? No.
@Pat Coyne: to be fair, he actually suggested that it should be tested first.
@Pat Coyne: are you deaf .. maybe ..
Are you dumb ….. certainly…
@EvieXVI: I agree he did … he should go first …
@Camacsaint: Ok, the manager will come and talk to you.
@Pat Coyne: he suggested that disinfectant could be injected.
He’s a clown. He could have play in the remake of “IT”. Perfect role
Maybe if the media highlighted the whole article,trump wouldn’t be shown in the light of the clown he is? However trump was actually jokingly referring to the previous interview before his in which disinfectant was discussed throughout which as usual the media fail to mention?
@Keith Smyth: the man has no sense of humour whatsoever, he is completely incapable of making a joke
@Keith Smyth: he was certainly not joking or being sarcastic as he claimed this morning. I live in Canada and I get the US news channels. I was watching it live. He is psychotic.
@Keith Smyth: he’s just a mental case, I thought our clowns were bad, and if anyone try’s to justify his bull shit, most be as warped as him.
This Man is bringing the Office of President to an ALL TIME LOW. I think that men in “white Coats” need to pay a visit.
Ok so let’s suppose he was being sarcastic… The president of the US thinking sarcasm on such a topic, without clarifying he was being sarcastic, while talking about 65k deaths is reprehensible. The man is an idiot. That’s the unfortunate thing, he is an idiot and there are too many idiots in the US that would follow through on his ideas. Case in point https: www. cnn.com/2020/03/23/health/arizona-coronavirus-chloroquine-death/index.html
Now he trying to say he was been sarcastic, and hi networks are trying deny Trump even said this last night. But everyone he is full of Bullshit !!
@Ossi Fritsche: His not hi, really journal please edit button!
@Ossi Fritsche: Use correction/ tip button
Trump definitely comes out with stuff that sounds wacky far too often, but calling his press conferences “dangerous” is just hyperbolic sillyness.
Shocked this wasn’t a Simpsons episode…
They cany stop showing him, he has put their rating through the roof and in television rating are what matters. I have to admit it’s a riveting watch every night as you dont know what he is going to come out with. And here’s the kicker, sleep joe as trump calls him has a hope of beating him. The best thing that could happen is if Biden gets sick and pulls out, then let Coumo run.
With due respect to his office I believe all networks and media should blank him.
Well imagine you tell people you voted for that…
Yes, no brainer on many levels
Yes oh god yes… Take away his drug ie his audience! Hes lethal
50300 dead stateside from Coronavirus
Distract Deceive Divide routine is getting OLD…. he is getting desperate…
These briefings are so bad they’re good.
They make me laugh every night , they should be on the comedy channel not the news channel.
As they say in Mayo, Trump would not be known locally for his intellectual promiscuity!!!!!!!
Yes!
Absolutely YES. But before they do, the White House reporters should organize a “walk out”.
Just air them on comedy central or Waterford whisper news.
Stop broadcasts he is a plank
Thems were jokes man
Trumps memoirs will be a best seller; that’s if he remembers!!!
He is a sick man.
I look forward to Hal Sparks roasting Donald Trump every evening on YouTube
They should shove a bottle of bleach up his jaxy, the fcuking gobshit&.
They may use the Article 25 soon. Imbecile.
@JJ Ryan: It needs the VP and Majority Leader of the Senate to invoke the 25th.
Not a hope with the present incumbents.
Agree, cut the stupid clods oxygen by not filming him. The likes of him thrive on public outings
Stop broadcasts
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