Squats: Nowhere to turn
Now, his home is a damp squat, a tiny room in an abandoned building which he shares with “five or six others”.
The human face behind the severe and sudden job losses here, the Latvian man went from earning €600 a week to begging on the streets.
He knows of about 20 to 30 young people of all nationalities – including Irish – living in squats around Cork city, he says.
Entering through a ground floor broken window, it is clear his living conditions are far from ideal.
A pungent odour permeates the place. There is broken glass, rubbish, nails and damp.
He has managed to hook up some electricity, but has no running water. He begs on the streets to keep him in cigarettes, food, phone credit and “a couple of beers sometimes” he says.
Jerry is part of a growing community of foreign nationals who are not in receipt of social welfare, and who are living on the margins of society – unregistered, un-named, invisible.
Young, well-dressed, and actively seeking work, they roam the streets all day, but at night they live in squats and containers, sleep in large dumpsters and internet cafes.
These are not bums, alcoholics or drug addicts. These are people who last year were building our houses, cleaning our hotel rooms, serving in the local pub.
Jerry has been living in the damp and squalid conditions for three or four months. He is hopeful he will get work soon. He has been looking for “anything”.
Why not go home?
He shrugs.
“I have nothing to go back to.”
