Winter beds needed now to prevent further homeless deaths, homeless charities warn

In Dublin, three people died sleeping rough in recent days. File Picture.

Urgent action is required to prevent further homeless deaths, a Dublin-based charity has warned after three people died while rough sleeping in the capital in recent days.

Cllr Anthony Flynn, who heads up Inner City Helping Homeless, said 300 extra beds promised under Dublin Region Homeless Executive’s (DRHE) winter initiative must be rolled out immediately to prevent further deaths.

“That needs to happen now; it’s no good rolling out 300 beds in December when we’ve already got those people on the streets,” Mr Flynn said, adding that 139 people were rough sleeping in the city on Thursday night.

“These beds need to be activated immediately. The longer we wait, we are going to see more deaths,” he added.

His comments come as three people died while rough sleeping in the capital this week and a further death was confirmed in a homeless hostel on Thursday night.

There is a “gap”, he said, in how services were responding to the recent deaths: “We’re seeing a much higher number of deaths compared to last year and that needs a response and it needs a response in how we manage services altogether. A lot of people are falling through the gap”.

“Without collating the proper data on how these deaths are occurring or happening we’re not going to be able to put an adequate response in place,” he added.

DRHE confirmed that 47 people accessing homeless services had died in Dublin so far this year and offered its sympathies to the families of the four people who died this week.

“Three of the individuals who passed away in October were receiving support from a variety of DRHE/HSE funded services, but unfortunately, homelessness is often complicated by medical and/or social factors,” a spokesperson said.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien also offered his condolences to the families involved in the “tragic deaths” and pledged to “deliver the appropriate measures” to support those in homeless circumstances, in particular those with complex health and mental health needs.

Covid impact

New figures published on Friday show a 17% fall in the number of people accessing homeless services nationally since last year, with 8,656 people in emergency accommodation at the end of September.

“While homelessness remains unacceptably high, there are indications in these latest reports of progress being made, despite the added challenges faced as we deal with Covid-19,” Minister O’Brien said.

Of more than 6,000 adults accessing homeless services in September, 70% were in Dublin (4,251), while 419 were in Cork, 224 were in Limerick, and 209 were in Galway.

A further 1,128 families were homeless in September, bringing the total number to over 8,500 people availing of emergncy accommodation.

Covid-19 is impacting on services, having led to reduced capacity and increased demand.

Cork Simon said it was "working well" with the council and HSE to manage current demand for services but confirmed that capacity had fallen due to public health restrictions, with bed numbers falling from 47 to 35 at its 24-hour Andersons Quay facility and to eight places at its ‘nightlight’ service.

The charity’s communications manager, Paul Sheehan, confirmed that around five people were sleeping rough in the city on Thursday night and a further ten people presented to its day service.

While 13 people died in homeless services in Cork this year, he said many had health-related issues or died from natural causes.

Gathering data on homeless deaths could help to identify any gaps in services or possible interventions to prevent deaths, Mr Sheehan said: “It would be of value to understand why people are losing their lives.” “Anything that gives a much better insight into the challenges that people experiencing homelessness face can only help to improve services,” he added.

In Limerick, Midwest Simon said Covid-19 has led to a rise in demand at its foodbank since the pandemic took hold.

“We’ve had people accessing the service that have never had to access the service before; due to job losses they can’t afford to put food on the table for their family,” Eleshia Fahy, head of operations at Midwest Simon, said.

“Last year the foodbank supported 7,000 people and so far this year that number is up by around 2,000 people already. It’s going through the roof,” she added.