The president of Focus Ireland, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, has called for an annual expenditure of £39 million over the next five years to deal with homelessness.
She said yesterday that at a time of economic buoyancy the amount was modest. "It is now estimated that over 90,000 Irish children and their families have no proper home to go to. Can you imagine what it is like to trying to raise a family in bed-and-breakfast or hostel accommodation? The cost in human terms - and indeed in economic terms - is appalling."
Focus Ireland, she said, had established that the Eastern Health Board alone spent more than £2.25 million last year providing bed-and-breakfast accommodation for the homeless, excluding refugees. Sister Stanislaus was speaking in Dublin at the launch of 100 helium balloons with a pre-paid postcard addressed to the Taoiseach attached. Finders are requested to post it immediately to Mr Ahern.
The postcard outlines Focus Ireland's priorities, based on social and economic research. They are a national network of housing advice centres providing a 24-hour service, the emergency provision of good-quality accommodation, short-term assistance for people moving to transitional housing, and the completion of the Government's target of 32,000 local authority and housing association dwellings. Sister Stanislaus said the number of homeless people in Dublin alone had doubled in the past three years, while the number on the housing waiting list nationally had doubled in the past 11 years.
Focus Ireland, which was founded in 1985 to deal with homelessness, this week opens a new housing development in Waterford for families and single people and a new Dublin city centre service for homeless teenagers. It also will publish the results of a survey on homeless people in Limerick and the findings of research into the mental and physical health of homeless families.
