Book will list the homeless who died on Irish streets

A BOOK of remembrance listing the names of the homeless who have died on the streets is being compiled.

The Homeless Agency has asked voluntary agencies, food centres and hostels to pass on details of those who have died over the last 10 years.

The list is expected to run into the hundreds.

“It will be something that we would have as a way remembering these people...to recognise that a lot of them died as a consequence of the circumstances that they found themselves in,” said a spokeswoman from the state-appointed Homeless Agency.

She added: “Basically what we have done is go to various food centres and to hostels and asked them to please send us names going back to the early 90s. Obviously not all of them have done so.

“It's not an easy thing to compile. We have approached the organisations themselves and are in the process of compiling the book.

“A lot of the records are from when people had memorial services and names have been read out going back over a number of years.”

The number who die as a direct consequence of homelessness across the country is difficult to gauge but Cork's Simon Community, for example, has identified eight in the city this year.

Patricia McAllister, from the Cork centre, said: “These would be specifically related to their homeless situation.”

Causes of death include pneumonia, hepatitis C and suicide, Ms McAllister added.

She said the numbers were increasing every year, that six died in Cork in 2000 and 12 last year.

There were no violent deaths in Cork but there have been a number in Dublin, including Niamh Murphy, fatally stabbed at a squat in south Dublin in May, and Patrick Pepper, a homeless man who died following an assault in St Stephen's Green in April.

Last year, it was estimated that as many as 50 homeless people died on the streets of Ireland.