Update

Didnt get into town much last week as was busy jobhunting and then was laid up with a bad cold.... Feeling much better now so hopefully will get a chance to talk to a few people this week

Unknown Romanian woman and Seán (*not his real name)

Yesterday I was wandering around the city centre in the afternoon(I'd been attending a course earlier that day for unemployed professionals of which I am myself one at this moment in time) and spotted someone tapping on O'Connell Bridge. It appeared to be at first glance a Romanian woman as she was pretty dark skinned and was wearing the long skirt and head scarf that you usually see the Roma women in. I stopped walking for a moment, leaned against the bridge and just observed her for a few moments and tried to see the world from her vantage point. All I saw was a blur of legs and people walking past. Nobody stopped. Normally I would probably have been the same but since I decided to embark on this project, I figured it would be hypocritical  not to at least attempt to talk to her. So I did. I walked up to her, introduced myself and asked her what her name was. Alas, it appeared she did not speak any English. However, she did seem to understand when I was asking her where she was from and said something that sounded like "Romania". I thought perhaps she might be suspicious of my motives  and like Jacinta before her, might assume I was a bangarda or someone attempting to move her on so I attempted to explain that I only wanted to ask her a few questions but either she really didn't speak English or she was a pretty good actress. At any rate, it seemed pointless to try and continue talking to her so I walked on.

Later on I came across someone else. This time it was a guy and he was gaunt looking and approaching pedestrians directly outside Stephen's Green Shopping centre and asking them for money. Determined to try and engage with someone else, I walked up to him, introduced myself and explained that I wanted to ask him a few questions. The minute I mentioned "questions", he seemed defensive and said "Look love, I'm not really in the mood today. I'm on methadone and I'm not really in the right frame of mind just now". I explained once again that I wasn't a guard and he seemed relieved and said "Oh I thought you were as I've been arrested before for tapping". Once he knew I wasn't a guard he was more inclined to converse and volunteered that he was from Sligo and his name was Seán.  He mentioned that he'd been off heroin for 6 months and when I explained that I wanted to just chat to him and find out a few things, he was much friendlier, gave me his number and said that he would like to talk to me and that he'd be in town at the same place the following evening around 6.He seemed like a decent enough chap, he was polite and courteous at any rate.

Admittedly I was skeptical as to whether or not the number was even a real number but in my naivety, I tried calling him this evening and actually got through. However, I hung up immediately before the phone was asnswered as I realised he possibly now had my number which might not be such a good idea.  In fact, as soon as I hung up he rang me back straight away and asked who I was. I explained that we'd met yesterday and he said that he rang back immediately as he thought it might be his mother. I had initially been ringing him to explain that I wasn't going to be able to make it this evening for our chat but he pre-empted me and apologised saying that  he was sorry he wouldn't be able to meet me that evening as he'd been arrested for begging ('tapping') and was right at that moment in the Garda station. He didn't sound particularly worried-in fact he seemed fairly nonchalant and told me that they'd just hold him overnight and then he'd be released.He reiterated that he was keen to talk to me and asked if another time would do. I suggested Monday and said I would give him a ring.
 Will try meet him again this week and see what other information I can find out about him.....was sily to ring him from my personal number though. Note to self: May now need to change phone number!!!

My first Post

Hey folks and welcome!

The inspiration for this blog

The idea for this blog came to me a number of years ago when I was volunteering with the Dublin Simon Community on the Soup Run project.  I am not currently volunteering with Dublin Simon Community but am now volunteering part-time with the St Vincent De Paul, who also do sterling work to combat poverty and homelessness.For anyone who might be unfamiliar with  Dublin Simon Community and that particular project, it's a charity organisation that works to relieve homelessness in Ireland. It's pretty well established here and there are a number of services that they provide to homeless clients such as emergency food and accomodation, supported housing and treatment services and service user participation which seeks to involve service users (ie. homeless) in the community.

About Me

My background is in customer service, languages and teaching. A mixed bag you might say but essentially, all involve dealing with people. I have worked as a teacher for the past 4 years  and strongly believe in the importance of education and its power to transform peoples lives but am not sure it's my vocation. As a good friend once said to me," Do something you love and you'll never have to work a day of your life". That, in a nutshell sums up my personal quest. I want to work for an organisation and a cause that I feel passionate about and that inspires me.


Homelessness in general

Homelessness is an emotive issue and one that bothers me and many other people. I use the word "bothers" deliberately because every time I walk past someone on the street who is clearly homeless (and I appreciate the fact that there are probably lots of 'pseudo'homeless people out there too taking advantage of peoples naivety and goodwill), it "bothers" me at a fundamental level. Depending on my own mood when I'm walking past this person, I inevitably feel either saddened, annoyed, indignant or outraged. Rarely do I walk past someone "tapping" (begging) without feeling some sort of emotion.  It's not an original thought at all but there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that allows so many people to be homeless particularly since we are, relatively speaking, an affluent country.


What I hope to learn


 This is a personal project.The idea behind this blog is to learn more about the issue of homelessness in Ireland, the reasons for it and the services that are available to homeless people.  I want to learn about homeless peoples' experience of those services and I also want to dispel some of the myths and preconceptions about homelessness  such as the assumption that all homeless people are alcoholics and drug addicts, that they are lazy and are "wasters" and that it is their own fault that they are homeless. From my own (limited) experience from working as a part time volunteer with Dublin Simon Community some years ago, what I found was that there are of course people who have eneded up homeless as a result of substance abuse and crime  but often  it is a number of issues as opposed  to one single issue that causes someone to end up on the streets. Family conflict, relationship breakdown, mental health issues and an inabilty to manage their own lives and make good choices are often some of the reasons that individuals become homeless.
Anyway, enough of that....what you'll find in this blog is a brief synopsis of the situations and stories behind homeless people I've spoken to. I've mainly been interested in acquiring some facts about their lives, how they became homeless and their experience of services in this country. . I am giving myself a simple target to start with- to talk to at least one homeless person every time I am in the city centre. I will try to engage them and find out a little bit about them. The first person I will start with will be Jacinta, I met her today

Fionnuala's Story (*not her real name)

Fionnuala was the first person I spoke to and questioned when I decided to embark on this personal project. I walked over O’Connell Bridge on a dark November evening and encountered her sitting against the wall wrapped up in a sleeping bag and wearing gloves which she informed me had been donated by the Dublin Simon Community rough sleeper team. She looked pretty young and was initially sceptical when I asked her if I could ask her some questions. In fact, she told me, in a croaky voice that she had a sore throat and couldn't speak. However, I offered to show her my questions if she would like and assured her that I wasn’t a Guard or a journalist, just a concerned citizen. This appeared  to reassure her and  cure her sore throat (!) and she then seemed pretty willing to answer my questions though perhaps some of the ‘facts’ may need to be taken with a pinch of salt! 

She told me that she was from Clonmel, Co Tipperary and was 20 years old.She had completed secondary school but never went on to further education  She is a recovering heroin addict and is now on methadone.  Although there is a clinic in Tipperary that she could attend, apparently the waiting list was approximately 18 months so herself and her partner moved to Dublin where they had been staying in a hostel in Blessington Street for some time. She had been some months in Dublin and had only officially been ‘homeless’ for 2 weeks. When I asked her to clarify that for me, she explained that she meant ‘sleeping out’.  When I pressed her as to why she was on the streets, she told me that it was because of a situation that arose when herself and her partner lost the lease on the flat that they had been staying in Cabra.  According to  her, she had to go to a funeral for a number of days and left the rent (€120) with the caretaker to give to the landlord in their absence. When herself and her partner returned from the funeral, new tenants had moved in and the landlord had gotten rid of all their stuff.  She told me that they never got the 120 euros back.

When I enquired as to whether or not she was able to claim social welfare, she informed me that she had up until she lost her place in Cabra. She is not able (or not willing) to return to Tipperary and move back home due to “family problems”. Her mother left her at the age of 3 and her father did not approve of her Protestant boyfriend or her drug problem! She has been moved on by the Gardaí on one or two occasions and was in court recently for “tapping” (begging) and got a warning from the judge. She said the court was full of Romanians and Dubliners and that it was amazing that Irish people would give money to Romanians but “not their own”

When I asked her what services she had linked in with, she mentioned that she had availed of the night bus but that it had since been stopped since the 18^th of September (will have to verify this information) and that she had stayed in the homeless shelter in Capel Street.