Homelessness - Services cuts show where priorities lie

About one in five homeless people did not qualify for a medical card in 2008, because they were in employment.

It appears that they are using the hostels because they cannot afford to pay rent.

Fr Peter McVerry, who has been one of the most effective and articulate campaigners for social justice over the past two decades, finds it difficult to understand how anyone living in emergency hostel accommodation could hold down a job. The emergency hostels are “awful places”, he warns.