Madam, - The recent article on the "wet hostel" in Aungier Street, Dublin (Weekend Review, April 16th) confirms what Trust has maintained for some time: that national and local government policy towards people who are homeless on our streets is geared to airbrushing them out of the landscape of the new Ireland, rather than acknowledging their vulnerabilities and rights.
It is very clear from Kitty Holland's report that a place designed to provide emergency accommodation for some of society's most vulnerable people has become their de facto permanent home. The only conclusion one can draw is that the main objective of the policymakers is to get them off the streets at all costs, with no provision for essential services and suitable accommodation that would give them a chance to avoid the inevitable consequences of their "chaotic lifestyles" and serious drug dependency.
Those who feel compelled to make their home on the streets are society's outsiders. Meanwhile, staff working closely with such people in unsupported and unsuitable accommodation are clearly firefighters, as this excellent article clearly highlighted. People working at this level constantly find themselves excluded from the wider debate around homelessness, and in a sense become outsiders themselves because of the excessive emphasis on "experts and consultants".
If we want real change we must adopt a new management philosophy of caring with a participative style instead of allowing those in frontline, caring roles to feel as marginalised as the people they are seeking to help. - Yours, etc.,
ALICE LEAHY, Director & Co-Founder, Trust, Bride Road, Dublin 8.