Homeless children increasingly come from caring homes, according to Father Peter McVerry, the Jesuit priest who has worked with homeless young people for decades.
Some 400 children become homeless in the Dublin area each year, Father McVerry writes in Working Notes, a periodical published by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice.
"Twenty-five years ago, young people who did not live at home almost invariably came from very dysfunctional families - families with alcohol problems, parents who didn't care, parents who were heavily involved in crime and who involved their children in crime," he writes.
"Today, such dysfunctional families are still a cause of homelessness but, increasingly, homeless children come from families where the parents are caring, worried and concerned."
Father McVerry speculates that the cause is the inability of parents to cope with normal adolescent rebellious behaviour.
"If not dealt with at an early stage in the crisis, this deterioration can continue to develop and eventually result in homelessness," he writes.
Father McVerry also notes an increase in the number of homeless girls in the past five years.
"Up to four or five years ago, the number of homeless girls was small in comparison with boys. Today, the figure is 50 per cent of the total. This has not been matched by a corresponding increase in accommodation for girls."
Father McVerry is critical of a lack of co-ordination between hostels, almost all of which are run by religious or voluntary organisations. "Some admit only 12 to 16-year-olds, some admit only 14 to 18-year-olds, some admit only 16 to 17-year-olds, some require all the young people to be in full-time education, some require them to be in employment or training courses, some require them to be completely drug-free."
He criticises the requirement by the Eastern Health Board's after-hours service that children seeking accommodation must go to a Garda station to wait for a social worker.
Many children, he says, "have already had bad experiences of the gardai and would be unwilling to approach a garda for help".
"I am personally aware of gardai who have told a young child that they will have to wait outside the Garda station even though it was bitterly cold and raining." The wait could be as long as three or four hours, he says. In other cases, gardai have told children to come back a couple of hours later because they "simply didn't want the bother of looking after the child" although there is little chance a bed will be available when the child comes back.
The Garda Press Office declined to comment on these allegations.
Father McVerry acknowledged that "many of the gardai are sympathetic and more than willing to help". Father McVerry argues that Focus Point or one of the existing hostels would be a more suitable contact area for children seeking social work services at night.