Homeless people are experiencing worse levels of exclusion and marginalisation than they did 30 years ago despite increasing levels of prosperity, the founder of homeless support group Trust said yesterday.
Alice Leahy, the director and co-founder of Trust, also criticised the State-funded "poverty industry" for allowing homeless services to become strangled by bureaucracy instead of focusing on the day-to-day needs of people on the street.
She was speaking yesterday at the launch of an initiative, Building Trust in the Community, aimed at changing attitudes towards people experiencing homelessness. The initiative, which marks the 30th anniversary of Trust, is sponsored by ESB Electric Aid.
"Some people find it hard to understand why we say things are worse for the outsider in Ireland in 2005 than it was in 1975 when Trust was founded," Ms Leahy said.
"We may have achieved much material success but many of us are equally less tolerant of those who cannot keep pace and fall by the wayside. The price of accommodation has soared and it has forced some people out on to the street.
"But their exclusion is also due to our increasing inability as a society to find space and understanding for those who cannot cope and fit in," she said.
Ms Leahy also criticised what she said was a major campaign to "professionalise" the voluntary sector, with large grants given to independent organisations once staffed largely by volunteers. These services are now providing services once delivered by the State.
"We describe it as a form of nationalisation and it is a very effective blanket to muffle the sounds of dissent. It effectively silences once prophetic voices in defence of the most vulnerable in society," she said.
"Once the independent agencies become part of the bureaucracy, they must adopt the language of management, the performance indicators and promotion systems that separate so much of decision-making from the flesh-and-blood reality."
While there has been progress, which has seen the number of people sleeping rough in Dublin fall from 300 to 100 in recent years, this compared to figures of about 60 in 1975, she said.
Trust is proposing an advocate system, where homeless people would have a person who would act as a "consumer voice" for vulnerable people. It is also distributing a free DVD on the theme of the way we treat outsiders in society. The group hopes it will eventually be seen by 100,000 people and spark a debate on excluded people.
"We would like to see people finding more creative solutions and taking a wider view of how their own lives relate to those around them," Ms Leahy said.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who helped launched the initiative, said while there had been significant improvement in the availability of services for homeless people, it was vital to help foster greater understanding of homelessness.
"Society in Ireland is changing rapidly and it is not surprising that some people are not sure where they fit in. Our future depends on the health and well-being of all our citizens and our responsibility is to do exactly what Alice and others like her are doing - to ask what we can do as individuals, communities and as a society."
Representatives of groups are invited to apply for a DVD by e-mailing info@trust-ireland.ie or writing to Trust, Bride Road, Dublin 8.