Child homelessness - System failing to help these lost children

IT is a damning comment on Ireland’s much-vaunted ranking among Europe’s richest nations that nearly 500 children were homeless on the streets of our cities and towns in 2004.

Perhaps the most depressing aspect of the latest figures available from the Health Services Executive is that the picture is getting worse.

By any standard, this country's consistently high level of child homelessness provides a graphic reflection of a society where vast economic wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals, while child poverty and the number of homeless children get worse by the day.

Admittedly, the Government is committed in principle to a series of action plans aimed at reducing homelessness among children.

But whether or not this strategy is working will only become clear when the Health Service Executive (HSE) delivers its long-awaited implementation report.

Meanwhile, provisional figures show that 492 children were homeless in 2004.

This represents a worrying reversal of the 2003 trend, when 476 homeless children were recorded, compared with a total of 534 in 2002. It is disturbing that the graph of homelessness is climbing once more.

Contradicting popular perceptions that this problem is confined to Dublin, the figures show that six of the eight health boards have recorded an increase in child homelessness.

While the streets of Dublin were home to 210 children, that represents just over 42% of the total who have no homes.

Bucking the national trend, the South Eastern area of the HSE saw a dramatic drop of 38 to a new low of 23 homeless children in 2004 compared with 2003.

However, broadly speaking, the situation is deteriorating.

In contrast, the largest increase 38 children was seen in the Southern area HSE, where 132 children were found sleeping rough.

One of the most worrying features of this ongoing problem is the fact that a close link exists between prostitution and child homeless. With 253 girls and 239 boys reckoned to be homeless in 2004, such concerns are fully justified.

Significantly, it was the first year a standardised 'contact form' was used, allowing the child to declare him or herself as homeless before the situation was clarified by social workers.

Thankfully, in many instances, children have returned home.

However, the failure to reduce the number of those sleeping rough on the streets of our cities and towns gives the lie to this Government's much publicised

Action Programme for the Millennium which promised "to address child homelessness and child prostitution as a key priority".

If anything the Coalition could be accused of putting them last rather than first on its priority list. Given this depressing scenario, the system is clearly failing to bring any sense of hope to many of these lost children.

Among the most vulnerable in our society, their young lives are in danger of being blighted by a cocktail of alcohol, drug abuse, violence and sexual exploitation.