Focus questions homeless figures

IT IS a damning indictment of society that the problem of youth homelessness worsened at a time when it could easily have been eradicated, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy told the Focus Ireland youth homelessness conference yesterday.

The conference heard the homeless charity was now dealing with people who were the fourth generation of a family to be homeless.

Sr Stanislaus said there had to be “a truly seismic shift” in society’s attitude to all children if true equality was to be achieved.

The charity has questioned the State’s figures on homelessness and called for updated figures to ensure there is a clear picture of the problem.

According to HSE figures, more than 1,500 people under the age of 18 are homeless each year. Almost 800 of these are unaccompanied while the remainder are within families which are homeless.

“I find it truly scandalous that one-quarter of the unaccompanied children are under the age of 12,” Sr Stanislaus said.

The number of young people using the out-of-hours service in Dublin rose from 492 in 2006 to 705 in 2009; the figure for the State as a whole was 800 in 2009.

She said, while there had been improvements in homeless services, “we have taken a step backwards and the problem of youth homelessness is actually worse and this is not acceptable”.

She warned against sidelining the issue because of economic concerns and said dealing with the consequences of youth homelessness would cost more than preventing it.

Focus Ireland has urged the incoming government to develop a plan to deal with the issue within six months of taking office.

“I really believe that we can end youth homelessness,” Sr Stanislaus said. Focus Ireland chief executive Joyce Loughnan said Ireland was a first world country yet the charity was working with fourth generation homeless people “and that’s unacceptable . . . and we are going to put a stop to that”.