50 AWAIT BED AT HOMELESS HOSTEL
KIND FAMILY BRINGS MICHELLE IN FROM THE COLD, BUT...
IN a sign of hard times, almost 50 homeless people are on the waiting list for emergency accommodation at Ozanam House in Wexford town this week.
‘It’s unfortunate. We had up around 47 people on the list this morning,’ said Gordon Power, the service manager at Ozaman House, which provides emergency accommodation for men aged from 18 upwards.
‘One of the main issues is there isn’t any private rented accommodation for them to move on to and once they get here it’s very hard to find somewhere to move them on to,’ said Mr Power.
‘We’re full to capacity,’ he said, adding that there had been a steady stream of people looking for a place at the hostel since the end of September or early October and things were getting worse by the day.
Meanwhile, a homeless woman living in freezing conditions in a tent at the Rocks in Wexford town has been taken in by a kind-hearted family who read of her plight in this newspaper last week.
In theory, homeless people are only supposed to be taken in for emergency accommodation at Ozanam House for a maximum six months, however, because suitable places are so hard to find, some residents have been there much longer, although Mr Power did not have figures to hand of just how long.
‘We just don’t turn them out on the streets or ask them to leave and we do have men here for a very long time at this stage,’ said Mr Power.
He said the youngest person at the house was 18 and the oldest were in their 80s.
Mr Power said some of the men looking for places were referring themselves and others being referred by the local authority.
Most of those looking for accomodation were ‘couch surfing,’ said Mr Power, adding that many of those living at the hostel had saved money for deposits and had a record of paying their rents, but there was a major shortage of private rented accommodation in the town and no signs of any improvement in the near future.