'I found myself alone in a park at night, I was so scared'

Merchants Quay Ireland HQ in Dublin City. MQI has witnessed a 60% increase in those aged between 18 and 24 accessing emergency accommodation. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

“I’ve never belonged anywhere,” said 18-year-old Cian*. 

“Until I was about eight, I wasn't really allowed outside [and] never had friends. My stepmother drinks about 20 bottles of beer every day for the last six or seven years. She took all of my Confirmation money. I never got one euro of it. 

"So I robbed €50 off [her]… When she found out, I got that many slaps, that many punches, I didn’t even go into school the next day, because I wasn’t walking in all bruised up. I was only 12 or 13.

The night I left, my step-ma had chased me around the house with a baseball bat after an argument. I found myself alone in a park at night, I was so scared.” 

Cian left home at the age of 16 when the abuse he received became unbearable.

Like a growing number of young people today, Cian entered “frightening” emergency accommodation in Dublin, sharing rooms with older men who were arguing with each other.

“I was afraid they might hurt me," he said.

I used to sleep with a silver chain wrapped around my hand, in case I had to defend myself. I was scared all the time.” 

National homeless and addiction charity Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) has witnessed a 60% increase in those aged between 18 and 24 accessing emergency accommodation in the past year. The latest figures show that of the 10,568 homeless in the State — the highest number ever recorded — 1,239 are young people.

MQI warned this figure will increase amid a “deepening housing crisis and growing cost of living”.

The charity stressed that “young people are of particular concern, as they are extremely vulnerable” and there is an “urgent need” to expand its young person support programme to meet “rapidly growing demand”.

The programme provides one-to-one support, peer support, activities, and weekly engagement.

MQI head of services, Geoff Corcoran, said the charity is seeing a “stark increase in young people who are working, but who may have been evicted, or who simply can no longer make ends meet”.

“We must invest in appropriate services in order to catch these young people and swiftly support them out of homelessness,” he said. 

If we do not do this, we risk allowing them to become trapped in homelessness, and to potentially fall victim to a whole host of issues including addiction, criminality, and health problems.” 

Last year, the charity had 129 young people between the ages of 18 and 24 in its youth programme.

After joining MQI’s support programme, Cian said he “started to feel safe and positive about my future”.

“It’s really helpful to chat to people who understand where I’m coming from,” he said. “It makes me feel like I belong.

“I’d love to be a football coach, but I’d stopped going to training because I was embarrassed of being homeless, and I had nowhere safe to keep my football boots. 

"Now, my support worker in MQI is helping me get back to training, and to get on a college course. But I still don’t know what the future holds for me.”

*Name changed to protect identity.