We tolerate it - Homelessness increasing

WHEN Bob Geldof pricked the world’s conscience with Band Aid in 1984 and tried to end famine in Ethiopia he set one of the great popular movements of the last century in train.

Band Aid was, as a fundraising mechanism, so very successful that it eventually led to a condition called “catastrophe fatigue”. Public empathy and generosity were drowned in an unrelenting litany of disaster. It became increasingly difficult for charities to raise money to try to confront disasters, natural or man made.

The desperate plight of homelessness has been so well highlighted in recent years that we are almost inured, almost indifferent to the statistics around this social betrayal. Just last month more families than ever before became homeless in Dublin. Some 134 families, including 269 children, presented to homelessness services in January. Of these, 125 families, including 253 children, had never been homeless before. In the face of this crisis it is necessary, though it should not be, to remind ourselves that this is a very rich country and that this situation exists only because we tolerate it.