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THE NUMBER OF people sleeping rough in the Dublin area this spring fell by 9% compared to counts conducted last year, according the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE).
The survey found that 83 people were sleeping rough in Dublin during the week of 6 to 12 March of this year compared to 91 people last spring and winter.
The Official Spring 2023 Count of people sleeping rough in the Dublin Region was arranged by the DRHE and conducted by the Dublin Simon Community Outreach Team alongside members of the Peter McVerry Trust Housing First Intake Team. Gardaí also provided assistance in compiling the numbers.
75 of the 83 people found to be sleeping rough had previously been assessed by the DRHE for homeless services.
According to DRHE, the majority of those included in the count were aged between 26 and 45 years old and almost half of the total number of people sleeping rough were doing so in tents (48%).
The organisation also found that 36 of the 83 people (43%) had accessed emergency accommodation during the week of the count ad that the majority (97%) had accessed Emergency Accommodation at some stage before the count week.
In statement, the DRHE said: “The number of people rough sleeping in the Dublin Region changes from night to night. While there is a core group who regularly sleep rough, and who may or may not engage with services, there is a larger group that move between rough sleeping, accessing emergency accommodation, sleeping in insecure accommodation, and staying with family or friends. Others may engage in rough sleeping for a very brief transitional period.”
The Peter McVerry Trust released a statement welcoming the reduction in the number of people sleeping rough.
CEO Pat Doyle said, “It’s positive to see any decrease in the number of people sleeping rough on our streets. Although the decline is in the context of the growing number of people entering homelessness nationally, it is a success to see the most vulnerable in our society – entrenched rough sleepers – moving on into their own home.”
Counts of people sleeping rough are specific to those people found sleeping on the streets and do not reflect the full extent of homelessness more generally.
Other methods of measuring homelessness levels include the monthly homelessness reports issued by the Department of Housing, which detail the number of people accessing emergency accommodation. The last figures showed that there were 8,323 people were seeking shelter, a reduction of 12 individuals compared to the month before.
A criticism of these figures has been that they do not track where people end up when they no longer avail of emergency accommodation services, and that the two numbers (rough sleeping and emergency accommodation) are not collated.
One such critic of the way in which these figures are discussed and published is Louisa Santoro of Mendicity, a homeless charity based in Dublin, who spoke to The Journal about the Department of Housing’s most recent report.
“At the moment,” she said, “it says that they’re not using emergency accommodation. That’s because they could be sleeping rough or they could be dead.
“Where are they? If you’re not using emergency accommodation anymore it doesn’t mean you’ve gone to live on a farm and it’s all happily ever after. You could be not using emergency accommodation because you’re sleeping rough or it could be that you’re not using emergency accommodation because you died.
“And I’m not saying that they are or they aren’t, I don’t know. But all that says is that there are 12 people no longer using emergency accommodation. We are imposing on that statistic that they have gone onto something better, but there’s actually no hard information that would purport that.
“I would like to see those figures analysed properly.”
Reacting to the report, CEO of Dublin Simon Community Catherine Kenny said the reduction was a testament to the cooperation between the Dublin Simon Outreach team and DRHE – but added that the number of people sleeping out on the city’s streets remains “still far too high”.
Kenny said: “Nobody should have to sleep rough, and our outreach team will continue to engage with those who remain to provide housing options, referral to critical treatment services, address barriers to accepting accommodation, and advocate on their behalf with partners across the sector.
“Furthermore, while rough sleeping is declining, the number of people in emergency accommodation continues to climb.
“People are also spending far longer in emergency accommodation because there are no social or affordable homes available for them. Sheltered accommodation is safer than rough sleeping, but nowhere is safer than inside your own front door.”
She added that people concerned about someone’s wellbeing can contact the Dublin Outreach team which are on the street from 7am – 1am via the Dublin Rough Sleeper app.
Additional reporting by Eoghan Dalton
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Absolutely shocking article. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights being used again as a definitive source. Outrageous.
It is the ‘rebels’ who have the track record of killing mass civilians in horrific attacks from car bombs to suicide bombers. Yet, little of the terrorist attacks on civilians by the rebels getting reported in Western media. This type of an attack is more than likely from the ‘rebels’. The rebels who said they will target any Russians or Iranians in Syria,a war crime. They have also said they will attack any civilian aircraft or airports, another war crime.
I thought the rebels were meant to have taken control of Syria at this stage. Well according to the Western corporate agenda media anyway, who have been talking about final pushes or final battle for Damascus for over a year now. The same media that describes rebel attacks as victories when they are nothing more than defeat after defeat.
It would be nice to have an article re Syria that is truly an independent one without an imperialist agenda.
Imperialist agenda? Can you elaborate a bit on that bit?
B Lowe, did you read the article which says that both sides are blaming each other and no one knows exactly who is to blame. You are critical of a “one man operation” reporting on this from Britain but you yourself are a “one man operation” typing away on your keyboard ad nauseum from who knows where?
@BLowe
“This type of attack is more than likely from the rebels”
Don’t you think you should reserve judgment until some evidence emerges??
You wrongly blamed the rebels for the Houla massacre when both sides were blaming each other, but went very quiet when the hard evidence came out that it was in fact the Assad regime which perpetrated this massacre of civilians (yes, a war crime, as you like to point out about various other acts).
I don’t know why your agenda is so dear to you, but you clearly have one if you refuse to keep an open mind about stories like this.
The Houla massacre was not carried out by the official Syrian security forces.
I am not blindingly pro the Syrian government on everything.
However, when all we hear on mainly Western news sources is one sided articles in favour of the mainly foreign Islamic jihadists and mercenaries masquerading as ‘rebels’ someone needs to offer a counterpoint.
The media is going gun ho against the Al Qaeda linked rebels in France describing their wish to impose Sharia law and how the Marian government has asked for assistance. The Syrian government is fighting mainly foreign Al Qaeda linked rebels who are imposing Sharia laws on the very few areas of control they have. The Malian government is a military dictatorship. Why is it not being referred to as so and why the double standards related Syria in the media.
Re Shuki.
The imperialist agenda. We, many believe, for example that the US opposes tyranny and seeks to bring democracy to countries. This is a testament to the power of propaganda. The most repressive country in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia yet is the closest ally in the region for the US. The US also directly supplies Saudi Arabia with arms, which Saudi Arabia uses to impose its tyranny.
So, you see many would say the US is an imperialist country as it pursues its own national interests at everyone else’s expense. The US does this currently by hijacking terms such as democracy and freedom and using them as a means to impose its will worldwide.
BLowe
The Houla massacre was carried out by pro-Assad militias with the full knowledge of Syrian state forces, who looked on as the massacre unfolded.
Yes, the fledgeling Mali government came about as the result of a coup (and hopefully democracy will follow) but the regime you continually defend is a forty year dictatorship!
You quite rightly point out the double standards of some sections of the western media, but your own double standards know no bounds!
Re: Houla
In the full knowledge of what had actually happened at Houla the regime then went on a sustained media campaign to blame the massacre on opposition forces.
This story was also run by Russia Today, and people like you fully bought into it without question.
Yet you accuse western media of propaganda?? As I have said before, propaganda is a feature of all sides in any war, but you seem completely incapable of understanding that the Syrian regime and their allies use propaganda extensively, and just because you heard something on RT doesn’t make it true!
Ah shure the students were probably “rebels” and the professors CIA or Mossad huh B. Wonder about the agenda of the Journal sometimes (why was this only reported on today like)
B Lowe
Your naive black and white view of the big bad world is still the same. Running out of steam and fresh anti Western advertising B, you are copying and pasting your old posts. You are consistent though, with your unbalanced one sided view, constantly showing a deep misunderstanding of the nature of a vicious civil conflict in Syria. Applying the same unworkable labels to the situation in Mali just does not cut ice. Your analysis of both conflicts is deeply flawed, and will remain so until you learn to assess your sources critically and look for balance.
Very poor explanation of Imperialism for Shuki, the age of empires is over my friend, the word is used now in an emotive way that has nothing to do with Imperialism. The analysis you have made of US foreign policy is very poor and naive and shows a complete lack of knowledge of International Relations.
B Lowe, I thought Israel was Americas closest ally in the middle east? Besides Saudi Arabia doesn’t need American military hardware to keep its people oppressed, you can do that with batons, dogs, water cannons, laws, the vice police, swords and it’s very own oppressive culture.
B Lowe, it’s you who has a black and white view of the world!
They interviewed a student on the news tonight and asked him who he thought was responsible for the attack. He replied “terrorists”, and the guy asked him “you don’t think the govt was involved in this?” and the student said “no absolutely not”.. in the same piece they talked to some fella from the govt who said they were convinced it was al-qaida. I’m not sticking up for the assad regime, just saying thats there is more to these “rebels” than we being told..
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