Call for ‘extra tier of support’ for homeless barred from shelters

Another tier of support is urgently needed to ensure homeless people who are barred or ejected from emergency shelters do not have to sleep on the streets.

And the army should also be deployed to ensure rough sleepers do not have to sleep out in sub-zero temperatures, a special debate on homelessness during last night’s meeting of Cork City Council was told.

The debate was prompted by the death in a city centre doorway last week of Kathleen O’Sullivan.

Ms O’Sullivan, 44, was found dead, huddled under blankets, on Lower Oliver Plunkett St, just yards from the Cork Simon shelter on Anderson’s Quay at about 11am last Wednesday.

She was the second person to die while sleeping rough in Cork this year, and the eighth person to die while sleeping rough since August.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Fergal Dennehy, who volunteers with Helping Cork’s Homeless, led the debate with an impassioned plea for an extra tier of support to help rough sleepers who are refused entry to emergency shelters.

He revealed how just 24 hours after Ms O’Sullivan’s death, volunteers with the charity found another woman huddled and freezing in a doorway almost in the same location where Ms O’Sullivan had died.

This woman had been refused entry to the Simon emergency shelter following an altercation earlier with staff, Cllr Dennehy said.

“I know the staff there have a difficult job at times, dealing with people under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” he said.

“But is it good enough for us as a society to put her out into some cubby hole?

“This woman was open to the elements, she was freezing cold, and at risk of rape while out on the streets of Cork on her own.

“Are we just going to leave people open to the elements and open to the dangers of the streets?

“We need another level of service for people who can’t get into the emergency shelters.

“We are constantly being told by officials that there is a bed for everyone who wants one but I don’t believe it.

“We have official figures which show that in October there were 15 people classed as ‘no bed available’.

“I want someone to tell me what ‘no bed available’ means.

“Whatever about us [the city council] as an organisation, as Christians, we need to step up before we have another death on the streets.

“Surely be to God, in a Christian society, we can do better.”

Party colleague, Cllr Tim Brosnan, said the army should be called in to ensure people do not have to sleep rough, especially during the current freezing weather conditions.

“We can send battleships to the Mediterranean with medics on board — why can’t we do something similar here?” he said.

“We have an army barracks here in Cork with cooking facilities and medical personnel that could surely be used in times of crisis like this.

“You might refuse a bed in an emergency shelter but the army could be sent around to pick these people up and say ‘you’re not sleeping on the streets tonight’.”

There was cross-party support for Cllr Dennehy’s call for a special meeting to thrash out the council’s policy response to homelessness.

The meeting is due to take place next Monday.