A 30-year-old woman who died in a tent while sleeping rough in Cork on Friday night was a “very decent girl” who had fallen on hard times, according to the head of a charity which assists homeless people in the city.
Christina Chalmers, of Helping Cork's Homeless, said the late Jennifer (Jenny) Dennehy of Blackrock in Cork – who was found dead in Gillabbey Park in the city – had only recently experienced accommodation difficulties.
“She was only on the streets since last week. She wasn’t accustomed to sleeping on the street. It can happen to anyone so quickly. She wasn’t your classical stereotypical homeless person on the streets with addiction. What I would say to people is that what happened [to Jennifer] happens to people so quickly. I am clean out of tents. Tents are dotted all over Cork city and county.”
Ms Chalmers said tents are becoming so widespread among the homeless that youths in the city have taken to setting fire to them during bouts of anti-social behaviour.
"We have homeless people coming to us saying the tents have been set on fire and their clothes have gone up in flames. You have so many people living in tents. I was on the way to an event in City Hall recently and I had to stop off to give my team member a tent for a homeless person. Tent use is not sustainable. People are soaked right through. They are a novelty for Electric Picnic, but that's it."
Helpless
Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork Dr Paul Colton said society feels "helpless" in the wake of recent deaths of homeless people.
Bishop Colton said the death of the young woman makes us all deeply aware of the complex challenges of homelessness in our community and country.
“Somehow, that this death has happened near the very place where our city of Cork was founded, seems, in its own symbolic way, to strike at, and to challenge, the emotional and moral foundations of our society,” said Bishop Colton.
“It is clear that more needs to be done and that across many sectors of society we need to pool our efforts. I ask myself ‘what can I do’? We each have a part to play; it is not something that we can simply accuse others of not doing.”
Ms Dennehy was found unresponsive in a tent by her 36-year-old partner in Gillabey Park on the southwest of Cork city on Friday. She was pronounced dead at Cork University Hospital. A postmortem was carried out, but no cause of death has been confirmed.
Evicted
Ms Dennehy had been sleeping rough in a tent for a few days having been evicted from her apartment on the Western Road in the city. She was in receipt of rent allowance and was housed by the local authority in recent years. The Simon Community has confirmed she was not a user of their services in the city.
Right to Water/Right to Change Cork held a vigil on Sunday night in Daunt Square to remember the three homeless people who died in Ireland over the past week.
Danielle Carroll (27) from Tallaght, Dublin, took her own life last Wednesday in the Leixlip House Hotel in Kildare, where she was living with her two young sons.
Jack Watson (50s), a former chef, was found unconscious on Thursday morning on Suffolk Street in Dublin city centre. He was later pronounced dead in hospital.