Media: Article- Number of rough sleepers in Dublin falls 40%

The_Conductor

Funnily enough this story (from RTE) is getting next to no airtime anywhere.
Apparently the number of rough sleepers in Dublin dropped an unprecedented amount from 184 to 110 in the 2018 spring count of rough sleepers on the situation at an identical time last year.

Story here: https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2018/0420/955866-people-sleeping-rough-dublin/

Synopsis:

40% decrease in the absolute number of rough sleepers on a given night in Dublin in Spring 2018

Fall is from 184 in Spring 2017 to 110 in Spring 2018

Of the 110 rough sleepers- 94 were men, and 16 were women

Only 79 of the 110 had their nationality identified- of this cohort, 46 were Irish, and 33 another (not specified) nationality

Context- the Winter count in 2009- at the peak of the financial crisis- was 60 (of whom 52 were identified as Irish, the other 8 no nationality was determined for them- there were no non-nationals identified).

Charities are calling for a variety of measures to include the provisions of Local Authority provided and maintained 1 bedroom apartments to get the homeless off the street.

Focus Ireland had a very pertinent observation- while 200 new emergency homeless beds were supplied in the last 12 months- the number of people sleeping rough fell by only 74.

No comment to the assertion that there are a cohort of homeless sleeping rough- who quite simply won't take a bed in emergency shelters, come what may- and no indication as to whether or not the 200 beds were full or not- on the night in which the, frankly shameful, census was taken.

Emergency accommodation- is only one tier of the solution- assessing the needs and addressing them- for those who are sleeping rough (to include addiction treatment and or counselling- and psychiatric assistance- specifically not addressed in the statement by the Minister- though highlighted by the Peter McVerry Trust.

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The_Conductor wrote: »

Funnily enough this story (from RTE) is getting next to no airtime anywhere.
Apparently the number of rough sleepers in Dublin dropped an unprecedented amount from 184 to 110 in the 2018 spring count of rough sleepers on the situation at an identical time last year.

Story here: https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2018/0420/955866-people-sleeping-rough-dublin/

Synopsis:

40% decrease in the absolute number of rough sleepers on a given night in Dublin in Spring 2018

Fall is from 184 in Spring 2017 to 110 in Spring 2018



Of the 110 rough sleepers- 94 were men, and 16 were women

Only 79 of the 110 had their nationality identified- of this cohort, 46 were Irish, and 33 another (not specified) nationality

Context- the Winter count in 2009- at the peak of the financial crisis- was 60 (of whom 52 were identified as Irish, the other 8 no nationality was determined for them- there were no non-nationals identified).

Charities are calling for a variety of measures to include the provisions of Local Authority provided and maintained 1 bedroom apartments to get the homeless off the street.

Focus Ireland had a very pertinent observation- while 200 new emergency homeless beds were supplied in the last 12 months- the number of people sleeping rough fell by only 74.

No comment to the assertion that there are a cohort of homeless sleeping rough- who quite simply won't take a bed in emergency shelters, come what may- and no indication as to whether or not the 200 beds were full or not- on the night in which the, frankly shameful, census was taken.

Emergency accommodation- is only one tier of the solution- assessing the needs and addressing them- for those who are sleeping rough (to include addiction treatment and or counselling- and psychiatric assistance- specifically not addressed in the statement by the Minister- though highlighted by the Peter McVerry Trust.

Its not a very well put together story - alot of dates and numbers
confusing to piece together

For all we know the sleepers moved to different spots and further out.
Didn't they find some man in his fifties dead recently that was living in a tent
in Ranelagh , he wasn't picked up by any of the groups as this was off the radar,
He live there for sometime.

Staff are also under pressure some nights, so not everyone is spotted.
People are just skeptical of numbers these days.

S. Goodspeed

Even if we assume the number is triple what the report says (so over 300) it is still a relatively tiny number for a capital city. Zero would obviously be better and that’s what we should be aiming for but there are other factors at play (mental health, drug dependencies etc) that will make that impossible.

It makes a mockery of the general media reporting of the “homeless crisis” or “housing crisis” which is almost always accompanied by a picture of a person sleeping rough on the street - the obvious insinuation being that everyone on the housing list are sleeping on the street rather than a hotel room or with friends / family.

As a nation we treat our non working classes admirably well (obvious room for improvement) but that’s something you’ll never hear in the media.

4ensic15

During the big snows there were additional places opened. This looks like a playing with the statistics game. Get the homeless off the streets using the snow as a pretext. While this is going on, count the homeless. After the snow, toss them out again. Job done. A few weeks later announce massive progress in reducing rough sleeping. You couldn't make it up!

Graham

4ensic15 wrote: »

During the big snows there were additional places opened. This looks like a playing with the statistics game. Get the homeless off the streets using the snow as a pretext. While this is going on, count the homeless. After the snow, toss them out again. Job done. A few weeks later announce massive progress in reducing rough sleeping. You couldn't make it up!

Source?

4ensic15

Graham wrote: »

Source?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/storm-emma-response-major-factor-in-reduction-of-rough-sleepers--peter-mcverry-trust-838430.html

Graces7

Joselyn Damp Windsurfing wrote: »

Its not a very well put together story - alot of dates and numbers
confusing to piece together

For all we know the sleepers moved to different spots and further out.
Didn't they find some man in his fifties dead recently that was living in a tent
in Ranelagh , he wasn't picked up by any of the groups as this was off the radar,
He live there for sometime.

Staff are also under pressure some nights, so not everyone is spotted.
People are just skeptical of numbers these days.

Man rough sleepers do not want to be seen so they find hiding places. Same in Canada .

Peter McV ? Ego trip.

Wheeliebin30

Graces7 wrote: »

Man rough sleepers do not want to be seen so they find hiding places. Same in Canada .

Peter McV ? Ego trip.

The ceo of Peters trust is on 100k a year.

He be doing himself out of a job if things aren’t bad.

The_Conductor

4ensic15 wrote: »

During the big snows there were additional places opened. This looks like a playing with the statistics game. Get the homeless off the streets using the snow as a pretext. While this is going on, count the homeless. After the snow, toss them out again. Job done. A few weeks later announce massive progress in reducing rough sleeping. You couldn't make it up!

The snow was used as a pretext for opening additional emergency accommodation beds (200). The availability of 200 additional emergency accommodation beds- resulted in 74 fewer people sleeping rough in Dublin. The count was not done during the snow. On the night in question there were (according to the Peter McVerry Trust) 56 places available but (for whatever reason) unused in the emergency accommodation centres. Focus Ireland have hopped on this- to state that the issue is not a lack of emergency accommodation- its a lack of accommodation on a more permanent basis for the homeless- particularly 1 bed apartments that should be owned and maintained on an ongoing basis- particularly by DCC- but also the other local authorities in which the homeless figures feature.

I.e. the emergency accommodation needs are satisfactory under the current system- the issue is those in emergency accommodation have nowhere to go- but back to the emergency accommodation.

As an aside- the various charities are taking digs at one another- and implying that the services on offer would be better delivered by 'focus'ing on the delivery methods of other charities...........

I.e. the new issue is a lack of suitable 1 bed apartments for the homeless who are currently reliant on emergency accommodation.

No mention of the needs of those who despite there being an excess of emergency accommodation- continue to sleep in the open- and no commentary on how/why the non-national population are making up an increasingly large proportion of our homeless.

Graces7

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

The ceo of Peters trust is on 100k a year.

He be doing himself out of a job if things aren’t bad.

Of course! Thank you for that enlightenment :rolleyes: