Homelessness Crisis: Interventions can help people move past homelessness

ABDEL Haffid Bensaada is proof that interventions can bring people out of homelessness.

Abdel was at the Peter McVerry Trust centre on Berkeley St, in Dublin, catching up with friends he met while living on the streets.

He has since been through a rehabilitation programme and is now training as a barber.

After battling alcohol addiction for many years, he entered treatment with the Dublin Simon Community: “I got a bed on July 28, and yesterday I completed 17 weeks in the residential programme.”

He arrived in Ireland from Algeria 17 years ago.

“I came to visit friends in Drumcondra, in 1999, for a weekend, and now, 17 years later, I am still here.

“I got offered a job in Keelings and it was 1999, a great time to be in Ireland.”

However, alcohol became a major disruption in his life and eventually caused him to end up sleeping rough.

“I remember, when I arrived here, on the first night when I arrived here, we went to the Turks Head bar and then I fell in love with Mrs Heineken.

“But my problem with alcohol really started in 2005, when I started using it as a painkiller.”

However, like many others living rough, he said it was very difficult to break the cycle.

“Homelessness is one of my triggers and I believe it’s a trigger of every addict. If you can’t get a bed, it’s very hard to start solving any other problems.

“The worst is the cold and the tiredness,” he said of being on the streets, adding: “You want to lie down and rest, even for two hours, but you can’t, you have to keep moving all the time, like a rat, and to forget the pain you begin drinking.”

The Algerian native first met Dublin man, Mark Codd, when they were both on the streets and the pair enjoyed a catch-up over tea and breakfast rolls at the centre.

However, Mr Codd is not as far along the journey and had come to the breakfast morning in the centre to seek help with his drug problem.

“I was living in Manchester for 15 years,” said the 42-year-old.

“I came home last November, for family reasons. I have a son here.

“I was clean for four years when I came home. Up until around four weeks ago I was clean, but then I slipped back. So I have come here, today, to have a chat with some of the staff and get help. I need to get back on track.”

He is currently living with a friend, but said that he won’t be able to stay there and with very little accommodation available, he may be facing the streets again soon.

“The Government are talking about these prefabs that they are building, but that should have been done years ago.

“The first people who will get those houses are families, and rightly so, but that doesn’t give me very much hope.

“All the places they are offering, the extra beds, are full to bursting.

“How can you stay in recovery when you are going through that?” he asked.