Homelessness affects every walk of life including qualified doctors and highly-educated college graduates, leading Irish charities have said.
Peter Murphy, who founded Homeless Mobile Run in Dublin in 2011, said despite many in society believing it is just people with drug and alcohol addictions that end up on the streets, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I have seen families who have had houses and who were in very good jobs and they ended up falling behind in rent.
“They end up in hotels then under emergency accommodation and then with trying to get their kids to school and this and that they end up falling behind and being late for your job.
“Then next thing you know your job doesn’t want you because you are being late.
“I have also seen people who are just out of college who can’t get work and they can’t afford anywhere to live and end up on the streets.
“There are two doctors that I know of who are currently living in hostels after falling on hard times.
“One of them had a gambling addiction but is now in recovery and trying to turn his life around.
“If you are homeless, it doesn’t matter what background you are from, nobody wants to know you.
“I’m doing this eight years and there has been 120% rise in homlessness since I started.”
Among those who is highly-qualified and has found himself homeless is former maths teacher Mark O’Regan.
The 37-year-old, who has been on the streets for two years, has resorted to living in a shed in Cork city as a result of “bullying” and “fighting” at local hostel.
The father of four, who lost his home after losing his job at a car dealership, said: “I am here for the past two weeks.
“It’s not an option going back. I left because of the bullying, fighting and intimidation that is going on around there. I feel safer here.”
Mark, who is an applied maths graduate said it’s almost impossible to keep down a job when he has no home to go to, adding: “I trained as a mechanic when I was 16. When I turned 20 I went to England to do my degree.
“Soon after I did a course in microcircuitry which involves circuit boards.
“I have three great qualifications behind me but I am finding it near impossible to get work due to my living circumstances.
“I had the opportunity of a lifetime for a role with a big organisation offering me a huge salary.
“On the morning of my interview, I was thrown out of the homeless shelter for no particular reason and I was left without my personal items so I couldn’t go.” The Ballyphehane man believes there are many people like him who are highly-qualified but are sleeping rough.
Each week the numbers are increasing. For every one person that’s getting housed another three are becoming homeless.
The latest figures from Focus Ireland state there were 10,338 homeless people in the week of August 19 across Ireland.
Of those, 6,490 were adults and 3,848 were children. And most shocking of all is the number
of homeless families has increased by 348% since August 2014
with more than one-in-three people in emergency accommodation a child.
Una Burns from voluntary organisation Novas said the number of kids and women living on the streets or in emergency accommodation is at an all-time high.
She added: “I think the homeless demographic has changed considerably since 2014-2015 in terms of the people presenting which is largely due to the rise in families.
“We have more children than ever before presenting as homeless. In the 2016 census the single largest biggest group is 0 to four-year-old’s and that really reflects the drastic change in the homeless landscape.
“In 2011 the single biggest category was 31 to 40-year-olds.
“We are also seeing a significant rise in the number of women presenting themselves as often they are single mums.
“But homelessness affects every social demographic in our society. I do believe however, that low- income families and single-parent families are the ones who are most at risk of homelessnes.
“We are seeing more and more people who are economically homeless.
“We need to ensure that we are preventing as many families as possible becoming homeless and trying to keep them in their own homes.
“In terms of families who are currently homeless we need to do as much as possible for them in terms of their mental and physical well-being and trying to eliminate the trauma as much as we can.”
Meanwhile, a mother of two said living in emergency accommodation has had a detrimental effect on
her young children, Michael, four, and 17-month-old Maja.
Kerri O’Connor, who became homeless due to unsafe living conditions, said: “I was 19, I went to countless viewings sent countless emails, calls and I’ve never had any luck with anything it was so unbelievably hard I was emailing city council for two years begging them for help to get us somewhere safe and I was constantly ignored and enough was enough so Tusla got involved.
“They gave us a letter to say it wasn’t safe for my kids to live there so they placed us in emergency accommodation on March 19, we went to a B&B in the city where Michael absolutely loved.
“After two months we were moved again to an apartment and this broke my little boy’s heart.
“Thankfully, later a bed in Cork came up. My children are happy, safe and they absolutely love it here.”
