3,300 CHILDREN HOMELESS OVER FESTIVE SEASON
Charity’s appeal to help families A record number now on streets
AROUND 3,300 Irish children will be homeless this Christmas, a charity has warned.
Focus Ireland has seen a 7% rise in people looking to use their services in 2017 and helped more than 14,500 people this year.
Founder Sister Stanislaus Kennedy said the crisis is still deepening – with a record 8,857 people now homeless.
The charity added that it has supported 720 families, including more than 1,500 children, secure a home so far this year with Government help.
Sr Stan said: “It breaks my heart to know that some of these children have been born into homelessness.
“Some of them will now spend their first Christmas stuck with their family in one little room together.
“This is awful and it makes me think back to what Christmas is about –how nobody would take in the baby Jesus and his family.
“I am sure this will strike a chord with everyone no matter what their beliefs are as these children today have also been turned away and left as homeless.
“They are our children too and we have a duty as a society to provide a safe home for them.”
Focus Ireland added the State supports some of its work but it has to raise 40% of what it costs to keep its services every year through donations and corporate support.
It called on the public to support its Christmas appeal.
Sr Stan said: “We are in a deep crisis but with your help we are making a very big difference to so many individuals and families.
“There are 1,500 children who were homeless earlier this year who will be waking up on Christmas morning in a home with their family.
“Any donation will help us to support families and also fund our work to prevent others from becoming homeless.”
Focus Ireland said 89 cents of every euro received goes directly to services to support people who are homeless or at risk.
To donate visit www.focusireland.ie or call 1850204205.
This makes me think back to what Christmas is all about SISTER KENNEDY, LEFT, YESTERDAY
THE shameful reality that 3,300 children will wake up homeless on Christmas morning while jailbirds tuck into a threecourse meal is a bit hard to swallow.
Picture the scene – families in emergency accommodation struggling to find some seasonal cheer as lags pull crackers and gorge on turkey with all the trimmings.
Not to mention the thousands more lawabiding citizens forced to queue for food parcels and accept help from charities to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, murderers, sex offenders, burglars and violent criminals behind bars will start their day with a festive fry up before the main event in the prison canteen. How has it come to this? Is this what Taoiseach Leo Varadkar means when he says he wants to lead a party for “people who get up early in the morning?”
Rough sleepers get up early in the morning, Leo – that is those of them who manage to get any shut-eye in the first place as they huddle in freezing shop doorways.
And families in emergency accommodation get up early too – most of them forced to walk the streets all day, kids in tow and no money in their pockets.
The number of homeless in Ireland is fast approaching 9,000 which is a shameful statistic considering our population is 4.7 million.
Leo’s idealistic message is that if you work hard you will get on in life and Fine Gael will stand behind you.
The harsh reality for many is very different. A great little country indeed…