Irish Examiner view: Proof the homelessness issue can be tackled

Finland's model reduced homelessness by 80%, showing a changed approach to the issue resulted in impressive results — Ireland should take notice

In Ireland, homeless figures have continued to rise, with near 20,000 homeless people recorded.

Do we sometimes view homelessness as part of the housing crisis rather than as a specific challenge in its own right? If so, we need to change our thinking.

For many observers it is a national shame that a country of over 5m citizens has almost 20,000 homeless people, and the homeless figures here are rising, not falling.

Yet another European country with a similar overall population, and even more homeless people, was able to address that problem head on and reduce homelessness by 80%.

A Simon Communities conference held in Dublin this week was told by Hanna Kettunen, a specialist with Finland’s ministry of the environment, that her country had moved from a temporary model of tackling homelessness to a permanent solution.

In the past, homeless people in Finland were given temporary accommodation but often ended up back on the streets again when that temporary accommodation was withdrawn. 

Finland changed its approach, with housing being built with a view to giving homeless people a permanent home.

The Finns needed to act: 40 years ago 20,000 people lived on the streets — out of a population of just under 5m — but the figure is now 4,500 (from a total population of 5.65m). Three years ago, it was 3,500. 

The raw demographics are remarkably similar to Ireland’s situation.

Finland’s decisiveness in opting for permanent homes rather than temporary accommodation has certainly worked well. That option is made easier, no doubt, by the Finnish state sector being proactive in building housing, with the state accounting for 11% of all the housing stock.

The conference heard minister for housing James Browne said Ireland had committed to ending homelessness by 2030, along with other EU members states.

A whole-hearted embrace of the Finnish model might be the way to do so, particularly as other approaches do not appear to have worked.

Decades of service to Cork

The Cork Sexual Violence Centre announced a new chief executive this week: Sinead Heffernan, an experienced mental health nurse and trauma-informed practitioner with over 25 years of experience in the sector.

One reason this is appointment is so notable is the identity and track record of her predecessor, Mary Crilly, who founded the facility in 1983 as the Cork Rape Crisis Centre and has headed it until this week.

Her work and leadership in the intervening 43 years has made a huge difference in Cork and the surrounding area, helping those who have suffered sexual violence and trauma at the most vulnerable points in their lives.

While she and others have certainly helped to raise awareness about sexual violence, recent events have underlined the need to keep the focus on this area. 

Only last month, Ms Crilly criticised an incident in a Limerick rape trial where the dress worn by a rape victim was shown to a jury. 

Describing it as “outrageous”, she said the use of a victim’s clothing in rape trials was common when she began attending court with victims 40 years ago and was angry that it is still being done now, even if it is on a lesser scale.

Such incidents contribute to a sense of taking one step forward and two steps back when it comes to sexual violence — that there is always more work to be done. In that context it should be noted that Ms Crilly does not plan to drop her focus in this regard.

She told this newspaper that she plans to focus on campaigning for standalone legislation to be introduced to cover the offence of spiking drinks with drugs, an activity she described as the “standout crime at the moment”.

Cork has been lucky to have Ms Crilly lead the way in this regard for over four decades.

U2's popularity endures

This week marked the 50th anniversary of U2’s formation as a band, and it is a measure of their fame that even casual music fans are likely aware of the circumstances of that formation.

In September 1976, Larry Mullen Jr, then a third year student in Dublin’s Mount Temple Comprehensive, pinned a note on the school wall: “Drummer seeks musicians to form a band.”

He, Adam Clayton, Dave Evans, and Paul David Hewson eventually formed that band, though a couple of notable name changes were involved: Evans became The Edge while Hewson became world famous as Bono.

In the intervening decades, U2 have hit many of the milestones one associates with a musical supergroup. The early rebelliousness, endless touring, and transatlantic adoration segued eventually into the higher markers of stardom.

In U2’s case, those indications range from being tapped to come up with a James Bond theme song — Goldeneye, as sung by Tina Turner for the 1995 film — to a residency in Las Vegas three years ago.

In their half a century on the road, U2 have been both lauded and criticised for stances taken on various issues, but their willingness to speak on matters such as global poverty has marked them out as genuinely socially engaged in way not shared by many others.

Did such stances have an impact on their popularity?

A new €2 commemorative coin was launched to mark their 50th anniversary this week by the Central Bank of Ireland — 150,000 €2 coin cards were made available featuring the faces of the band members.

They sold out on the bank’s website shortly after going on sale at 12pm. The band’s popularity endures, clearly.