18 babies born into homelessness, reveals charity

Almost 20 babies have been born into homelessness in Ireland, writes Joyce Fegan.

Homeless charity Depaul launched its annual report yesterday stating that there was an increase of 10% in the number of families that sought its help in 2016.

Depaul helped 511 children last year, 18 of whom were babies that were born into homelessness.

“We deliver a range of services for families. Certainly yes, we are seeing children being born into our services,” said Depaul CEO Kerry Anthony yesterday.

“The impact on children is very severe. We hear a lot from teachers as well about the fact that children are struggling in the education system now, they’re falling asleep (in class), they’re having to travel right across town. It’s just a very, very difficult situation.”

While she welcomed the family hubs that have been opened, the Depaul CEO said they were “not ideal”.

“Obviously, recently there have been homeless hubs opened to try and move people out of hotel accommodation and into them,” she said.

“Again it’s not an ideal solution, we’d love to see long term accommodation for people but I think in the interim, providing people with good quality accommodation with supports on site can only be welcomed.”

Depaul, which opened an emergency hostel with 65 beds on Dublin’s Little Britain St last Christmas, said it supported a total of 3,620 homeless people in 2016.

However, the number of people that moved “through” its services fell by 13%.

This is because they had “little to no opportunity in the private rental market or through social housing to move on”.

“While some of those in Depaul services have been engaged with, supported and aided to a point where they are capable of more independent living, they cannot move on, this stagnation has a knock-on effect as beds do not become available for other vulnerable people,” according to Depaul’s annual report.

In 2016, the charity helped 203 people move on from its services.

Ms Anthony said the charity, which works both in Ireland and the North, would have liked if Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy had attended yesterday.

However, she understood that he had a busy week with the housing summit this Friday.

Ms Anthony hopes a plan for social housing will come out of Friday’s summit.

“I would like to hear that new systems are being put in place to make sure that we can free up the availability for building houses, whether that be through finances, through land, making sure that the local authorities have the correct resources in place to be able to deliver on the targets that we have set,” she said.

“Really, more than ever, social housing, is the only solution to this crisis.”

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.