Rise in migrants using homeless services

The number of people from the newer EU states using services for the homeless has doubled in the past year, according to the director of the Homeless Agency, Derval Howley.

Ms Howley said yesterday the agency was now carrying out an assessment of this sector of the homeless population, which will be published in the new year.

She was speaking to The Irish Times at the publication of the agency's annual report. Since then, the numbers had "increased significantly".

Ms Howley also said many were now presenting with problems such as alcohol dependency and drug addiction.

"Where last year, the service providers were seeing between 60 and 120 a day, mainly from Poland, the day services have seen a doubling." She said, for instance, that the Capuchin day centre in Dublin, which provides hot meals to about 400 people a day, is serving half of these to people from the accession states.

"Also, where last year there were maybe six to 10 sleeping rough - and very little if any were accessing the night services - that number has increased significantly," she said.

In her presentation, Ms Howley said the two main challenges facing the sector were the blight of people sleeping rough - though this has reduced significantly - and moving people on from emergency accommodation to long-term housing.

Yesterday's report, for 2005, marks the mid-term point in the agency's target to eliminate sleeping rough and long-term homelessness by 2010.

Its assessment last year found the numbers experiencing homelessness in Dublin had decreased by 19 per cent since 2002.