Single adults sheltering in Focus Ireland’s coffee shop in Dublin on Friday were “sad” at Government plans to prioritise housing destitute families over people like them, with one man saying “it is going to push us back even more years”.
As rain lashed against the cobbled street outside, the men gave their reaction to reports that the Government’s latest housing strategy, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, involves instructions to the council to put long-term homeless families with children at the top of their housing lists.
Martin O’Hanlon, originally from Co Tyrone, has been living in Dublin for 25 years. He has experienced homelessness but now has a “council bedsit”.
“I am very aware of the effect homelessness has on people,” he said. “I know families are the most important, that there are almost 6,000 children in emergency accommodation. But it’s very hard for single adults too. Of course it is.”
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Asked if he thought the latest proposals to tackle the housing and homelessness crises would succeed, he shakes his head.
“Everything they promise about housing always flops on them, everything.”
A man in his 50s, who does not give his name, said he has been homeless “on and off about 18 years”. He said he has had “battles with drugs” and had slept rough in the previous week.
“I think the Government should treat us all as equals,” he said of the proposals. “If the mother and father present first, house them. And if the single adult comes next, house them next. Otherwise you are just discriminating.”
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Asked how that made him feel, he said: “Sad. It makes me sad. I would like somewhere to call my own and get my head together. I don’t think I will ever get my head together without that.”
The latest homelessness data show there were 11,376 homeless single adults – 6,815 men and 4,561 women - in September. This compares with 10,199 a year earlier and 3,368 in 2015. These do not include adults who are couch-surfing, in domestic violence refuges, those recognised as refugees but stuck in IPAS centres because they cannot access housing, or those sleeping rough.
David Kiesse, originally from the Congo, has been in Ireland for 15 years and said he lost his home in an “eviction” a year ago. He is sharing a room in a hostel with three others.
“There is no privacy,” he said, adding that most of his belongings were stolen when he was in hospital for surgery last month. “I was lucky because I went with my passport and documents with me.”
He said he works as a van driver despite having a degree in forensic science. “I cannot find a job in my field ... If they do house all the families that will be good, but we’re adults, we are human beings too.”
Brendan Duff (64), who lives in Crumlin, has been homeless in Dublin and Birmingham.
“They are making [single adults] second class and then they wonder why there is so much tension.”
Like others, he expressed a view that immigration has exacerbated the housing crisis.
“I don’t mind foreign people coming over but there is nowhere to put them,” he added. “I feel sorry for the mothers in the [hotels] with no place to cook, the children can’t go out and play; they haven’t a home for a little party on their birthday.”
His son, also named Brendan, has been sleeping rough for two months. “I don’t want to see a child on the streets but instead of saying, ‘you jump to the top of the list’ they should notice there are adults on the streets up to 20 years. It is going to push us back even more years.”
