Long-term homelessness a scandal, says McVerry
Fr McVerry, a champion of young homeless people, is to receive the Humanitarian Award and a cheque for €100,000 at the 2006 Meteor Ireland Music Awards early next month.
“We have six different centres. Some are totally dependent on fundraising and all are dependent to a lesser or greater degree on our own fundraising. We need to raise in the region of €600-€700,000 a year, so it (the Meteor cheque) will go towards the running costs of our centres. It will make a huge difference to this year’s running costs,” he said.
Fr McVerry operates three hostels in north Dublin, a drug detox house in north Co Dublin and two drug-free aftercare houses in north Dublin for people who have succeeded in becoming drug-free.
During the Celtic Tiger years, especially 1996-2002, the number of homeless people doubled due to two main factors, he said.
Property prices “shot up” and made it very difficult for homeless people to get accommodation in the private rented sector. A large number of immigrants also wanted accommodation, usually in that sector.
Last year’s homeless figures, however, appear to have fallen slightly. Fr McVerry said: “So it appears the numbers of homeless people are not going up. The real scandal, however, is people remain homeless for many, many years. And that is as a result of the failure to provide adequate social housing, principally local authority housing.
“Homeless people are people who are at the very bottom of the housing waiting list. And just as the number of people doubled over the years of the Celtic Tiger, the numbers of people on the housing waiting list almost doubled over the same six years.”
