Shameful neglect of the vulnerable

DESPITE coalition promises to eliminate homelessness, the plight of homeless people gets worse

Damning figures due out today will show the number of new homeless people has more than doubled this year. In Dublin, where the crisis is worst, the group is encountering a new homeless person every day.

What is particularly disturbing about this inexorable rise, is that despite a government commitment to reduce the problem, the financial allocations of crucial agencies are now being cut.

This is yet another example of the Coalition callously targeting people on the margins of society.

This bleak scenario has to be seen in the context of the litany of failed government promises spelled out by Labour leader Pat Rabbitte at his party’s annual conference.

They include its failure to: deliver a world-class health service (now mired in crisis); provide additional medical cards (shelved); recruit extra gardaí (frozen); fast track school building programmes (cancelled at dozens of

dilapidated, leaking and rat-infested schools across the country.)

Barely two years ago, the Taoiseach declared the need for people to sleep rough in Dublin would be eliminated by 2010.

He unveiled a 228m plan promising a “radical new approach” to the delivery of services to the homeless, including a public-awareness campaign, 1,500 long-term housing units, a 24-hour freephone advice and information service, plus a new Homeless Agency.

However, according to Simon’s outreach workers, between 34 and 39 new homeless cases are now being encountered every month in Dublin alone, more than double last year’s rate.

This makes a mockery of the Government’s target to reduce by two-thirds the estimated 275 people sleeping rough in Dublin before the end of this year.

Making matters worse, the organisation claims the coalition has failed to deliver on promised funding.

Meanwhile, Focus Ireland, another group at the forefront of the homeless problem, reports that its funding request was cut last week by 25%.

It stands to the credit of business firms that several have stepped in to help Simon at a time when the Government has let the homeless down.

The group’s resettlement project, aimed at giving homeless people the skills required to settle and work again, has received no capital funding whatever from the State.

Regrettably, Focus Ireland’s call for the coalition to reverse cuts in funding for voluntary homeless organisations is likely to fall on deaf ears amid swingeing cuts by Finance Minister McCreevy.

Thus, it looks inevitable that desperately-needed services for the homeless will have to be cut.

Remember Mr McCreevy’s solemn pre-election assurance that no cutback, secret or otherwise, were planned?

As voters have since learned to their cost, his department was busy sharpening the axe at the time.

The latest figures show that 2,920 adults, 640 families and 1,140 dependent children are currently homeless in Dublin alone.

Up-to-date national figures remain unavailable because a Department of Environment study conducted 14 months ago has yet to be released.

Measured against the depressing picture painted by the Simon Community, the Government’s promise to reduce homelessness sounds very hollow indeed in the face of a crisis that continues unabated.