Hearing hard facts much better than endless empathy,
THE Government’s director for homelessness in Dublin, Eileen Gleeson, has created major waves with her straighttalking comments on our ongoing housing crisis. Coming on top of the continuing insistence of the Government that Ireland’s housing crisis is ‘not much worse’ than that of many other countries, it suggests that the Taoiseach’s much-vaunted spin machine may need even more emollient and balm.
Ms Gleeson, director of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, said long-term homelessness resulting from years of “bad behaviour” could not be solved by the ef for ts of ‘ad hoc’, unauthorised groups.
“Let’s be under no illusion here,” she told Dublin City Council’s policing committee, “when somebody becomes homeless, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years of bad behaviour probably, or behaviour that isn’t the behaviour of you and me.”
“These homeless,” she added, “are afraid to come in, they’re reluctant, they’re quite happy to continue with the chaotic lifestyle they have. If somebody provides them with some sort of halfway shelter, they’ll willingly take it.”
As someone who lives near to a dozen tents by the Royal Canal where people are now dwelling along with their dogs, I can relate to this obser vation. And to the fact that these are a different sort of homeless to those who just want a house in which to live.
But it speaks volumes about the sort of cotton-wool discourse we have in this countr y that Ms Gleeson was immediately slammed by Opposition politicians, the far left, and assorted quango heads. She stated what would be plainly obvious to the rest of us, and which most of us would observe on a daily basis, especially in the bigger towns and cities.
Our political/media bubble too often prefers soothing language and endless empathy instead of actual hard facts and solutions. Yes, Ms Gleeson’s views came across as insensitive, given the nightly spectre of families staying in hotels at public expense. And yes, the Taoiseach could have let his point be said in deep conversation – or by someone else – that Ireland does not have especially high homeless figures, statistically speaking, compared to others.
Leo didn’t have to say it himself, right after the Ard Fheis and in the face of new and ever higher homeless figures. But this is the presidential-type system of governance, and utterance, he especially seems keen on and it does no one any favours.
The reality is that even if the Government is doing the best it can, and feels that it is being unfairly whipped by critics and opponents with few ideas of their own, you don’t say this. You take the punishment and get on with it – that’s the reality of politics, and Government, however unfair.
What it looks like is the Government saying ‘ this housing crisis is happening in lots of places and it will be with us for a while yet’. Suddenly, the emergency lights go off and everybody can take their foot off the gas. And a lot of homeless can be moved towards the charities and soup kitchens and be sort of taken off the State’s watch.
However, this doesn’t deny that what Ms Gleeson said was right, and indeed Mike Allen of Focus Ireland defended her and acknowledged that some voluntar y groups were not simply helping the homelessness situation. Yes, she could have chosen better language, he said, but a lot of the voluntar y groups did not know the correct protocol for accessing ser vices and sometimes operated in isolation, even with a degree of rivalr y with official teams.
But the bigger picture here is that we are confusing a homeless crisis with a housing crisis. And this confusion is deliberately sustained by those who seek to profit politically from painting the State
We are confusing a homeless crisis with a housing crisis. And this confusion is deliberately sustained by those who seek to profit politically from painting the State as an uncaring monster that has ‘forced’ families to live in hotels
as an uncaring monster that has ‘ forced’ families to live in hotels.
The reality is that we have a massive housing shortage, causing people who would never be near homelessness in usual circumstances – the people Fr Peter McVerry looks after – suddenly finding themselves without any where to live.
And so marginalised ‘street people’, who – as Ms Gleeson correctly said – often have longterm addiction problems and resist institutional help, are counted in with families or lone parents or maybe even professional types who just can’t find an affordable home.
This is a very mixed set of different elements to lump together and homelessness experts should be honest about it, instead of using an overall crisis to advance the cause of their respective organisations.
Our housing shortage is a perfect storm. With ghost estates littering the land, we built too few homes after the crash and the banks wouldn’t lend. So property prices soared, as did rents. Meanwhile, the population grew quickly and the recover y brought in more immigrants and returned emigrants. And bedsits were foolishly abolished.
Successive Governments can be blamed for a lack of long-term planning – and for selling off overly large land banks to overseas vulture funds. But this is a complex crisis and silencing the likes of Ms Gleeson, or getting hung up on ‘ the right sort of language’, is not helping us to have a full and honest debate about it all.
We have had enough of blame games in this countr y and it’s time we pulled together.