A CHARITY providing homeless services in Dublin has seen a 40 per cent increase in demand in a one-year period
Over 4,500 people attended Crosscare’s city centre housing and welfare advice centre in 2010, a 50 per cent rise in demand since the onset of the recession in 2008.
Last year it provided homeless men and women with 32,000 bed nights and served 110,000 meals, a figure it expects to rise to 180,000 by the end of this year.
Patrick Gaughran, who is originally from Drogheda, lost his job 18 months ago, the first time he had been out of work since leaving school. He fell behind on his rent and had to move out, spending six weeks homeless.
“Living rough on the streets is a life I wouldn’t wish on anybody. You’re not really sleeping – you’re afraid to go to sleep in case someone attacks you in the middle of the night. You wake up at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning with people kicking you, telling you to move, calling you a scumbag,” he said.
“Then someone put me in contact with Crosscare and they just opened up doors for me and showed me that there are people out there who do care.”
He now lives in a home for ex-servicemen in Smithfield.
Elizabeth Moore’s voice shakes as she described the day she went into Crosscare and introduced herself saying, “I’m homeless”, a situation she never thought she would find herself in. The service has provided the stepping stone she needed to get herself back on her feet. “The ultimate goal for me is to get a place to call my own.”
Speaking at the launch, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, lauded the service as a reflection of what the Catholic Church could and should be. “We are here in a homeless centre, in a food centre. Most Irish people have never been in either but many of the people who are here today never imagined that they would be in this situation.”