As stigma eases more beggars likely on the streets

"HAVE you got the price of a cup of tea?" a young man was asking passers by outside Bewleys, in Westmoreland Street, Dublin, last week. The man, who looked to be in his early 20s, was dressed in jeans, boots, and a hooded jacket. He would not have looked out of place on a university campus.

An increasing number of young people from the "settled community" have started to beg on the streets of city centre Dublin over the past number of years, according to the gardai and Focus Point the organisation for the homeless. The phenomenon is a "sad reflection of an increasing amount of homelessness among young people", according to Mr Simon Brook, of Focus Point.

Mr Brook thinks the social stigma associated with begging may be easing as more and more young people resort to it as a source of income.

"I'm only guessing, but once the phenomenon becomes established as more than an activity carried out by a very small minority, and young people see other young people doing it, then they may be more inclined to do the same thing.

"Young people are not so embarrassed by it now. And people are giving them money, so the public are coming to accept the reality of young people begging."

All of the young adults begging in Dublin city centre approached by The Irish Times said they were homeless. Most said they were sleeping in hostels, although one young man said he slept rough because of the drunks and drug addicts that frequented the hostels.

One man said his welfare money was not sufficient to pay for food and the price of a hostel bed, while others said they needed the money to pay for their drug addiction. One young man said he had a drink problem. Most said they got between £20 and £30 a day from begging.

While begging is illegal under the Vagrancy Act, the gardai rarely arrest people doing it, according to a garda at Pearse Street station in Dublin. "We do have problems with these people hassling people for money, however, especially at night, and on Grafton Street. That's when we move in.

"It's hard to know who these people are. A lot of them have homes but they won't go back to them, for whatever reason. I have no doubt that it is becoming fashionable, if you want, for these people to beg, though I have no doubt also that these people have real problems at home.