It is always gratifying to find major commercial companies putting something back into society. The Ready for Work scheme, designed to provide jobs for the homeless, is a particularly useful exercise in that it reaches out to the dispossessed and allows them a chance to start afresh.
Homeless people are at a particular disadvantage when they look for work because they have to use a hostel or temporary accommodation as their address. As a result, they are invariably not called for interview. In order to circumvent that problem, a range of major companies have been encouraged to commit, in advance, to the employment of homeless persons.
During the past four years, more than 100 people have been provided with basic training under the scheme and the majority have gone on to employment or further education. That may appear to be of little consequence, but for those involved it represents something of a minor miracle. Where there was bleak hopelessness, there is now a future and the promise of better things to come. Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán Fitzpatrick hopes to expand the scheme and has invited the business community to become more involved in providing employment for homeless people, some of them former prisoners.
At the turn of the century, as the economy expanded rapidly, there was an accommodation crisis and large numbers of homeless people were sleeping rough on our streets, the great majority in Dublin. Some had alcohol or drug problems. Others had lost jobs; came from broken families or had been sent to prison for petty crimes. The causes were complex and varied. But all needed help. The immediate accommodation emergency was surmounted through the provision of 1,000 bed and breakfast places in the Dublin area. But, as housing moved out of the price reach of the lower-paid and families fragmented under pressure, the situation remained grim.
The four main homeless charities called on the Government last week to provide 10,000 social and affordable housing units for the next three years, along with €2 billion in the National Development Plan, in order to cope with the situation. It is a tall order and, given past experience, it is unlikely to be met. In spite of that, greater availability of sheltered housing is vitally necessary if the ongoing needs of these vulnerable and voiceless people are to be met.
The business community has given a lead in providing work and, hopefully, this valuable and socially productive scheme will be expanded. The Government must now live up to its responsibilities.