On Friday 20th December we returned to Dublin city center to help feed the homeless people on our streets. We had arranged for a large number of sandwich’s to be prepared and along with soft drinks made our way around the inner city areas of Dublin to hand out over the course of the day, while having conversations with men and women of a wide ranging demographic.
Albeit a very small gesture and a drop in the ocean with regards effectiveness in alleviating the problems that exist, what is always apparent is how appreciative and thankful people who are homeless are off getting these basic things we take for granted on a daily basis.
The number of people accessing State-funded emergency accommodation currently stands at around 11,000 people, according to figures published by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.
This figure does not include people sleeping rough, people couch surfing, homeless people in hospitals and prisons, those in Direct provision centres, and homeless households in Domestic Violence Refuges. These people are not included in the regular monthly homeless figures as they are not accessing emergency homeless accommodation funded through Section 10 of the Housing Act.
There are many voluntary organisations where people can get involved if you would like to assist in supporting our homeless. A quick google search will bring up the organisations involved who are always looking for volunteer support. Hopefully the government will soon finally start taking serious measures to address these issues but in the mean time, if interested and have time, we would recommend taking time to simply go around handing out food to the people living on the streets, it certainly makes a difference.
