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One year on from Jonathan Corrie's death, we're still relying on short-term solutions

His death, on a cold November night, sparked nationwide outrage, but what has changed?

Updated 9pm

ON THIS DAY one year ago, the body of 43-year-old Jonathan Corrie was found in a Dublin doorway just a stone’s throw from the building in which this country’s government makes its most important decisions.

The father-of-two had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for years and had been living in Dublin for eight years. His death, on a cold winter night, sparked nationwide outrage and demands for real and tangible action to be taken to tackle what has become a huge crisis.

It pushed Environment Minister Alan Kelly to convene an emergency summit on homelessness, bringing together all of the key parties in one place to come up with a solution. The immediate response was to make additional 220 emergency beds available in Dublin.

Local authorities in Dublin were directed to put 50% of all new housing allocations towards vulnerable groups, to provide accommodation for over 300 people.

Kelly told reporters that there would be no need for anyone to have to sleep rough in Dublin “unless they make that choice themselves”.  These were described by the government at the time as short-term responses.

‘They’re trapped’

One year later and homeless service providers say those short-term responses never developed into long-term solutions.

Niamh Randall of the Simon Communities told TheJournal.ie that homeless numbers have continued to grow and are continually met with emergency provisions.

The challenge now is that we don’t have the option of moving people on, they’re trapped in emergency accommodation.

“We need to move away from this emergency-led response and look at prevention and keeping people in their homes.”

The most significant change in Ireland’s homelessness problem has been the increase in the number of families losing their homes. An average of 70 to 80 families become homeless every month in Dublin alone and the key reason is the struggle to keep up with rent increases.

Randall said her organisation welcomed Kelly’s announcement of a two-year rent freeze but it was rent certainty that was needed and that has not been delivered.

“The second piece that hasn’t happened is rent supplement – it remains at the level that was set in June 2013, yet we know rents have increased by over 20% since then,” she said.

An analysis of rent markets by the charity in August this year revealed only 7% of properties fell within rent supplement parameters, and in some areas there were no homes at all.

Though she welcomed the government’s social housing strategy, she said things just are not moving fast enough with just 20 new houses being built in the first half of this year.

Department of the Environment Department of the Environment

‘Not good enough’

Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, the founder of Focus Ireland, has said despite government promises about homelessness being top of the agenda, the crisis has deepened.

“When most people think of homelessness, they think of a man in a sleeping bag in a shop doorway. This is the most visible and tragic manifestation of homelessness,” she said.

“People in this situation usually have complex needs such as mental health or addiction. Many grew up in state care and left at 18 without any support. People in these situations often need intensive supports. Offering them a bed for one night and out on the street in the morning to spend the day looking for a bed for the next night is simply not good enough.”

She too was critical of the failure to deliver rent certainty:

The two year rent freeze which he is introducing may slow the rent spiral, but thousands of families are still burdened with the massive rent rises of the last two years. If rent supplement is not increased to reflect the 30% rises that have already hit them, they will continue to lose their homes.

Winter 2015

Almost 2,500 adults without children are now homeless across the State, along with 1,571 children, and 980 parents.

The latest short-term response from the government has come in the form of a Dublin ‘cold weather action plan’ providing for an extra 174 emergency beds as well as accommodation for couples and families.

Last year’s provision of beds filled up rapidly, with figures for June this year showing 1,975 of the available 1,977 beds were occupied.

Latest tough sleeper figures indicate there are 105 people sleeping rough, though the Inner City Helping Homeless group says it interacted with 145 rough sleepers last Saturday night.

Government politicians have said the 175 new emergency beds should be sufficient to see people through the winter months. But the Simon Communities’ Niamh Randall says the fact that last year’s emergency beds were filled up so quickly shows there is a gap between rough sleeper figures and the reality.

In response to a query from TheJournal.ie, Alan Kelly’s department said that at the end of September, 739 ‘households’ (comprising individuals and family units) had exited homeless accommodation and moved into “verified and sustained tenancy arrangements”.

A spokesperson said the long-term solution to homelessness is to increase the supply of homes. The government plans to provide 35,000 new social housing units over a six-year period.

Other actions the department mentioned included:

  • Reforms to the private rental sector;
  • The 500 modular housing units to be provided in Dublin;
  • A 32% increase in homeless funding next year;
  • Returning derelict or unused social housing units to use, with the expectation that 2,500 will be returned this year;
  • Using former NAMA properties in south Dublin to provide 65 units for families.

While it looks like, in the short term, no one will be left without a bed this winter if they want one, we are still a long way off the government’s target of ending long-term homelessness by 2016.

“We’re just consistently looking at short-term emergency responses. We know that being homeless is extremely stressful, it’s actually very traumatic and the longer people remain in this temporary accommodation the greater the impact on their overall health and wellbeing,” Niamh Randall said.

We have a history of short-term solutions becoming long-term and people deserve much better than that.”

First published 8am

Read: In his own words: Jonathan Corrie on homelessness – and hoping for a chance>

Read: “Alan Kelly is the only minister who understands the homeless problem,” says Peter McVerry>

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59 Comments
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    Mute CAPITAINE ADEBAYO
    Favourite CAPITAINE ADEBAYO
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    Feb 11th 2014, 11:02 AM

    Thanks google. Thanks for starting a world where people walk around recording each other. I will never wear these.

    66
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    Mute Jeremy Usbourne
    Favourite Jeremy Usbourne
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    Feb 11th 2014, 10:54 AM

    Should read.

    “Silly Virgin Atlantic press release, amounts to vast amounts of free advertising”

    46
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    Mute Heather Knowles
    Favourite Heather Knowles
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    Feb 11th 2014, 11:21 AM

    Minority Report meets Skynet

    42
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    Mute Tom Keating
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    Feb 11th 2014, 12:32 PM

    Time for infrared necklaces for everyone so you can protect your identity.

    26
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    Mute Barry Doyle
    Favourite Barry Doyle
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    Feb 11th 2014, 11:30 AM

    Welcome to the world of tomorrow

    24
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    Mute Dylan McDonald
    Favourite Dylan McDonald
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    Feb 11th 2014, 1:04 PM

    I’m a tech geek at heart and this technology is really cool BUT people have to be realistic and open there eyes, this is potentially one of the worst things to ever hit the self’s, privacy as we know it will be gone and our kids will never no what it is! Once its gone it will never come back, Scott Barry style

    19
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    Mute bopter
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    Feb 12th 2014, 12:19 AM

    Fyi tech geeks tend to have good grammar and spelling.

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    Mute bandido
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    Feb 11th 2014, 2:19 PM

    The thing I’m dreading most about this technology is women walking down the street behind me checking out my sweet little ass.
    It gives them the capability to perv on me when I’m not even around!

    17
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    Mute Butter bean
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    Feb 11th 2014, 11:49 AM

    Yeah because you can’t walk around recording people on you phone this last ten years.
    Good one Adebayo.

    14
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    Mute Heather Knowles
    Favourite Heather Knowles
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    Feb 11th 2014, 3:36 PM

    Big difference in phone recording and these glasses. A few examples, your on a beach with your toddler and some stranger starts pointing a phone at your child filming them. If your a vigilant parent your going to notice this and one way or another put a stop to it and make other people aware of a potential pervert in your midst. Beach full of people lots wearing glasses any sicko can now do this unnoticed. Burgler scoping out your house standing with phone risk of being seen. Burgler walking slowly along with glasses on no problem. Taking cash out at an ATM using card in shop etc person with glasses good chance they can zoom in on your pin. Seriously dangerous piecof technology in the wrong hands and that’s aside from everyday invasions of privacy.

    16
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    Mute CAPITAINE ADEBAYO
    Favourite CAPITAINE ADEBAYO
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    Feb 11th 2014, 3:44 PM

    Soz, only seeing this now as you didn’t hit reply. Walking around with a phone outstretched pointing in someones face since 2004 isnt something I have seen too much of, in day to day life, like transactions at a till etc but hey maybe I haven’t been paying attention.

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    Mute Pádraig Reardon
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    Feb 11th 2014, 5:20 PM

    PIN numbers are so last year love! We have fingerprint scanners here in Brazil now no need for a PIN number so don’t be worrying!

    1
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    Mute Pádraig Reardon
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    Feb 11th 2014, 5:21 PM

    *On all ATM machines

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Feb 11th 2014, 12:44 PM

    I foresee (sorry!) terrible eye problems down the line if these become the norm.

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    Mute Julian King
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    Feb 11th 2014, 12:27 PM

    I remember these from ‘Beyond 2000′!

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    Mute Ben Gunn
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    Feb 11th 2014, 11:56 AM

    Welcome to the future. Bare in mind that the airlines have been the test bed for realtime transactions and date analysis since the 1960′s.

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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Feb 12th 2014, 10:26 AM

    I like Virgin Atlantic. I flew here via London from SFO. Treated like a human being. Wonderful staff. Comfortable seats (and I’m 6’4″, 210lbs). The other airlines should pay attention to VA. They know how to treat people.
    The glasses? Couldn’t care less. The terminal is plastered with cameras anyway.

    1
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