HOMELESS CRISIS:
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.
RECOVERY
“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 highlyqualified 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 consider