ELECTION SPECIAL

Injured homeless man preferred sleeping beside canal to staying in a hostel, says charity worker

‘He was always very polite’

AN ERITREAN man who sustained ‘life-changing’ injuries during a homeless clean-up operation felt safer where he was than in a shelter, an outreach worker who helped him has revealed.

The unnamed homeless man, aged 30, has undergone surgery at St Vincent’s University Hospital for his injuries.

He was sleeping in a tent near the Grand Canal in Dublin on Tuesday when it was removed by an industrial vehicle during works to tidy the canal walkway.

Last night, Pádraig Drummond, a volunteer with Inner City Helping Homeless, said the man only recently moved into the tent near Wilton Terrace.

Mr Drummond first came across him three to four months ago.

‘He was one of a number of homeless people who were sleeping rough along the canal there,’ he said. ‘He had moved into a tent that belonged to another man who moved to Baggot Street with a new tent. He [the injured man] cleaned it out and got in to it himself. He had been sleeping on a nearby bench before then.’

Mr Drummond said he understands that the man is in an induced coma and that as well as a serious injury to his leg, he has other injuries including a crushed rib cage. Attempts to contact his family have so far been unsuccessful.

Mr Drummond, who works voluntarily two to three nights a week delivering essentials to homeless people in Dublin city centre, said he last spoke with the man on Wednesday or Thursday of last week.

He said: ‘I offered him blankets, toiletries and food, all the usual stuff. He hadn’t moved in to the tent at that point and the first night I heard of him being in the tent was that night, the night of the accident. I had been trying to get him to move into a hostel but he declined. He said he felt safe where he was. Like so many of the people we deal with, a bed in a hostel is just not an option.

‘Going into an environment with addicts can be an issue, and in most cases it’s just too dangerous.’

Mr Drummond said that in cases where he comes across a homeless woman who doesn’t have addiction issues, he tries to get her accommodation in a women’s refuge rather than in a hostel.

‘It’s just not safe,’ he said. ‘I would do my best in a situation like that to avoid sending a vulnerable young woman into that environment. That’s how broken the system is.’

‘Hopefully he [the injured man] will get the full support he needs for his recovery,’ Mr Drummond added. ‘He was always, always very polite and upbeat any time I engaged with him; even at times when we woke him, when he would be soaked through from the rain, he would be very cooperative. He was always very appreciative of what we were offering.’

The incident is being investigated by gardaí and the Health and Safety Authority, while Waterways Ireland and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive have undertaken separate reviews.

Homelessness charities are calling for an independent investigation.

Gardaí have appealed to anyone who may have witnessed the incident or any road users who may have camera footage to contact them at Pearse Street on 01 666 9000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.

Homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry said the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) should be given the responsibility to go into hostels which accommodate homeless people to carry out checks on them.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said if that were to happen, many of the hostels would be ‘closed down overnight’.

He said some homeless people are choosing to stay in tents over hostels, with safety being one of the main reasons.

‘Some are excellent but many don’t feel safe in those hostels,’ he said.

Fr McVerry said one of the biggest complaints he gets from homeless people who choose to stay in hostels is about being assaulted.

He said people are often sharing a room with five or six other people whom they do not know – and ‘they could be injecting heroin or have a serious personality problem’.

Fr McVerry said he finds it particularly frustrating when people who do not use drugs have to share hostel rooms with drug users.

The Dublin Region Homeless Executive said in a statement that it would be confident that its hostel accommodation would meet Hiqa standards.

It also said emergency accommodation is subject to unannounced inspections by council environmental officers and that there is a complaints procedure.

It added that it had opened 340 extra private rooms for single people and couples over the past year.