The traditional, picture-perfect version of Christmas and all things Yuletide is one of a beautiful, nuclear family surrounding a crackling fire, the smell of cinnamon wafting through the air, while children in dainty pyjamas tear open their presents underneath an ornate, luminous tree. It’s picturesque, quaint and charming and evokes nostalgia and warm fuzzy feelings in your stomach, not unlike the warmth from a cup of hot chocolate (or a glass of port) before Midnight Mass. Classic films like It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th St and White Christmas imprint this idealistic Christmas scene onto all of us. But for a lot of people, this Christmas is more myth than possible reality.
Standing on Grafton St, trying to take the best possible Instagram photo of the Christmas lights, one inevitably notices homeless people struggling to keep warm, sleeping just across from the gaudy Brown Thomas decorations. Across Ireland, a record number of people will be sleeping rough this Christmas, while families cuddle up in the safety of their own homes. The rise in homelessness around the streets of Ireland’s cities has been widely publicised – a quick Google of “homeless Dublin” brings up 534,000 news results, with at least three articles produced in the last few weeks including sobering headlines like “35 per cent rise in number of homeless people in Dublin”, and “Number sleeping rough in Dublin up more than 50 per cent in a year”. There is an undeniable crisis in Ireland with regards to homelessness, and it’s something that piques the conscience when the cold, hard weather settles in. While it’s not enjoyable to walk home from college in zero degree weather, it’s far worse to try and sleep in it.
Numerous Dublin-based groups have been working to make this winter more bearable for those on the streets. One group, Pizza Sunday Club, sets up outside the Disney Store on Grafton St every Sunday night. Their aim is to bring homeless people together with members of the public. Supported by Dominos, Apache and Deliveroo, pizza is handed out during the evening, as well as socks, underpants and gloves, for those who need them. Speaking to The University Times, co-founder Cormac Noonan explains that they want “to make an atmosphere” so as to help break down the stigma associated with homelessness. Buskers are invited and members of the public are encouraged to come over and join in. In the words of Noonan, they want to treat homeless people as what they are, human beings, rather than defining them by their social situation.
“If the homeless had places to go to store their stuff and know it’s safe, where you know your phone will not be stolen, that it is safe, that would be a big step”
This problem of labelling – the way all homeless people tend to be painted with the same brush by the public and the media – is a central concern for Anthony Brophy, a member of the homeless community and founder of the charity Homeless Helping Homeless. When asked how the average person can help a homeless person, he replied: “Don’t be judgemental and don’t give them a handout. Give them an opportunity. There are lots of misconceptions about Dublin’s homeless at the moment and that’s a problem. I’m 33 now and homeless – I live in a tent in Clonskeagh. I’ve been homeless on-and-off for the last 16 years. I’m just trying to change the stigma around homelessness, and people like me, that are homeless, not an alcoholic, I’m not on drugs, I’m not mentally or physically disabled.” Brophy’s activism, and the urgency with which he speaks of the homelessness crisis, reveals how this is a life or death matter, more so at Christmas than at any other time. “At the end of this month I’ll be starting a hunger strike outside the Mansion House, to try and get at least five people housed before Christmas. If I die, I die – I’m ok with that. I’m not eating a Christmas dinner, I’m not having a Christmas party, I’m not celebrating Christmas at all. I want to hit this home to everybody: there is a person sitting outside the Mansion House right now putting his life on the line because of everything that is happening, going hungry this winter.” At the time of writing, Brophy was beginning his preparation to undertake the strike.
Talking with Brophy in front of the growing line for pizzas, clothes and hot drinks, the concern he has for those suffering from the complications of homelessness is very clear. He describes the many initiatives and ideas he has to achieve change, including his own organisation. Their mission statement is to combat the stigma associated with homelessness, much like Pizza Sunday Club. Through his charity, Brophy has worked with Dublin’s homeless community for many years: this year, he organised a collection of dumped sleeping bags and tents at the Electric Picnic festival in Laois, and distributed them to people sleeping rough in the city centre. He highlights the lack of security the homeless possess, particularly with regard to their possessions: “If the homeless had places to go to store their stuff and know it’s safe, where you know your phone will not be stolen, that it is safe, that would be a big step.” He suggests the establishment of special centres with numerous facilities that the homeless can use, including lockers, a PO Box for use as a postal address, washing machines, and kitchens (all for a nominal fee). But despite his enthusiasm for numerous innovative ideas to help, Brophy is unconvinced that the government truly understands the magnitude of the problem, and this is where the heart of the problem lies.
Like many other victims of homelessness, Brophy’s situation has been complicated by systemic problems in the provision of care and failings in legislation to protect those that are most vulnerable in Irish society. The number of those without a fixed residence has been increasing rapidly, according to a November report published by the Dublin Simon Community. It found that there are 6,847 people currently in emergency accommodation services. However, figures like this are often understated – particularly given that Dublin is the only area where an official “rough sleeper count” takes place – so the actual number is likely much higher. Outside of the capital, figures from the Cork Simon Community show a nationwide increase in homelessness, with rough sleeping in Cork City growing nine-fold between 2011 and 2015. This year’s report concluded that “while it is welcome to see some slowdown in the numbers of families and children entering into emergency accommodation, the numbers remain far too high”.
“Pizza Sunday Club was started to create a social interaction – to get people chatting to homeless people. If you look for differences, you’ll see differences. If you look for similarities, you’ll see similarities”
In many instances, the plight of the homeless is compounded by constant increases in living and rental costs. Recent hikes in already rising rents and the sheer amount of unoccupied houses are forcing people from their homes. Marty Connolly, co-founder of the Pizza Sunday Club, expresses his frustration at the fact that nearly 260,000 houses across the country lie empty, the majority in cities owned by hedge funds and other corporate interests. In Dublin alone there are 16,000 vacant apartments. This is a problem faced across the world, with many central city locations in cities like London and Hong Kong exhibiting the same pattern. Combined with the cost of living, the consequences can be catastrophic. “We know that many of the people who are homeless are coming from the private rental sector’’, says Niamh Randall, spokesperson for the Simon Community. Clearly the Dublin housing crisis extends across society, with increases in rent this year ever-present. Many of us students have experienced the difficulties associated with uncertain living conditions, yet stable accommodation is a basic human right, famously highlighted as early as 1943 by Abraham Maslow in his hierarchy of needs. Like Brophy, Randall emphasised the need for legislation, calling for full rent certainty, the creation of a rents index linked to the consumer price index, and “action to enhance security of tenure’’. He described the need to keep existing homeowners and tenants in their homes as “key to stopping the flow of people into homelessness.”
Despite his many efforts and initiatives, Brophy fears that the situation is already past breaking-point. He mentions to us that in the last fortnight alone, four people have died on the streets of Dublin. “I’m sick of hearing about homeless people dying on the streets. It’s just too sad. I cannot handle it anymore. It’s why I’m going to take action.” Asked what students can do in the run-up to his strike, and in the run up to Christmas, he responded: “Just support me, and make sure I don’t get arrested. Make sure that the guards don’t come and tear my tent down. We need publicity and support from students to gain a voice, and get the change we need. I shouldn’t be homeless, and many more out there, like me, shouldn’t be homeless. No-one should.”
Both Brophy and Connolly emphasise that the Gardaí approach, in viewing homelessness as little more than an eyesore, lacks perspective and understanding. Gardaí seem to want to remove homelessness from full view in the centre of the city, and have clearly enforced this in some cases without an ounce of empathy. There is no broad stroke solution to the issue and attempting to put homeless people “out of sight, out of mind” leads to further ostracization to the outer fringes of society. “They have to fill their arrest quotas and we’re the only people they can arrest – we are essentially the rubbish to the guards”, says Brophy. He recounts times when Gardaí have searched his property without warrant, or removed without notice the belongings and essentials of other members of the homeless community. “They don’t like us being in the streets, they don’t like us being in public. They are always trying to push us off of the main roads and into the alleyways. They’ve destroyed three of my tents already.”
The many dangers and difficulties the homeless community face evidently diminish their sense of belonging within society, reinforcing the perception that they are undervalued and a nuisance to others. For a person with nowhere to go, asking them to relocate from a doorway or a tent, without much consideration as to where they can go, is incredibly stressful and can lead them to become more desperate and unsafe in their decisions of where to sleep. Whilst they move away from public spaces in an attempt to live unharassed, they need to stay in Dublin in order to receive the support they need from the public. Brophy says that in this way many of the homeless community feel “trapped in the city centre”.
Connolly and Noonan have been friends since studying at Trinity together. When asked what action can be taken to alleviate the problems faced by Ireland’s homeless population, and why he got involved with the charity, he answered: “When myself and Cormac started this, the whole thing I wanted to do was to break the stigma, because I had stigmatised them myself in the past, and it was only when Cormac asked me to go out and talk to these people that I realised how bad the situation is.” He elaborates on this, pointing out that identifying with those in the homeless community is central to their aim: “Pizza Sunday Club was started to create a social interaction – to get people chatting to homeless people. If you look for differences, you’ll see differences. If you look for similarities, you’ll see similarities.”
He states that the community are at a breaking point, and most in need of some Christmas compassion: “I think what these people need is encouragement. The longer you’re outside a society, the less you respect the rules, the less you respect the laws. Unless we do something really soon, I think it’s going to become a sort of anarchy territory. I think there is just a real lack of understanding across the board.” Connolly is particularly impressed with the huge impact that small, innovative charities like Pizza Sunday Club can have. “These charities are making a big difference in people’s lives. It’s purely people doing what they can, and facilitating the help and opportunities that people in dire situations need. Anthony, for example, hopes to set up a kayak coaching business, and myself and Cormac hope to help him achieve that.”
“The big thing for me is being able to walk up Grafton St and know about seven or eight people that would happen to be homeless, when before I normally would have walked by them”
He suddenly grows introspective: “It seems as if the only time a homeless person is recognised as a human being is when they die. Like Jonathan Corrie, the only time they are named is when they die.’’ Corrie is perhaps the cause célèbre – a member of the homeless community for over 30 years, he passed away outside Starbucks on Westmoreland Street, across from the Dáil and a stone’s throw from campus, in December 2014. This emblemises civil society’s passive indifference towards homeless people. It’s as if there is a sort of glass ceiling that acts as an impediment to social mobility, and the longer they are excluded from society the harder it becomes to break through this barrier down the line.
Connolly mentions the difficulty that homeless people face in reintegrating without familial support and feels that through the Pizza Sunday Club, Homeless Helping Homeless and other groups, this sense of community that was once lost is recovered. “When you see the musicians busking they will come over and find out what’s going on and even chat with some of those in the community”, he says. “The big thing for me is being able to walk up Grafton St and know about seven or eight people that would happen to be homeless, when before I normally would have walked by them. It’s bringing them back into society’’.
As if to prove that, Connolly makes reference to the diverse walks of life that people come from, particularly a young girl who ‘’is here every week yet is unaware of being homeless. She thinks it’s gas that she lives in a hotel room with her family”. He also expresses frustration at the difficulties he faces in what became a year-long struggle to help those most at risk in our communities. He describes an early optimism that begins to fade in the face of constant obstacles when “you expect it to get better’’. “It’s hurting you so much’’, he says, referring to seeing the struggle of those with whom he has formed relationships with in the homeless community but seeing no change in their situation. A tipping point is being reached in the minds of those that are on the front lines in this fight, and Connolly feels that “it will take a further tragedy for people to actually wake up”.
Connolly suggests that there is a comparison between the desensitisation that is occurring in Ireland and what is occurring now in America, with the passing of laws to make the conditions associated with homelessness illegal. Gaining an arrest record for sleeping in your car or begging in public only serves to compound the difficulties faced by those who are already at their most vulnerable and adds further impediments to an already difficult situation.
From talking to all of these people, each contributing their own efforts and solutions to the welfare of those in need, it is very clear the massive difference that a small, dedicated group of people can make to the lives of homeless people in Ireland. In the run-up to a freezing cold Christmas, people young and old can help do their bit to foster a better environment for the homeless, either through the vast array of powerful initiatives such as those outlined here, or simply by helping to improve society’s approach to solving such a multifaceted problem. As we say our goodbyes to the many volunteers we met, Brophy suggests the possibility of a forum, where young people can engage in dialogue with the homeless community and “educate themselves about the issue”. It is a creative and energetic approach, like Brophy’s, like the Pizza Sunday Club, like the sports program, that is the key to achieving real change for the homeless in Ireland, and educating society about the problem is a large part of that.
