Getting fruity with the homeless & comparing projects

Fun with Fruits
Another well overdue blog post. So have been working away very happily with Dublin Simon Community on Fridays and really enjoying the work on the whole I have to say. Meeting the service users and interacting with them and getting to know them a little bit is undoubtedly the best part of the role. Last Friday, myself and S went to the project on Canal Street in the afternoon where S was delivering a training session on how to make home made cosmetics using natural ingredients (mainly fruit!). The emphasis wasn't so much on education as having a bit of fun and the session definitely lended itself to that in a big way as we  mashed up strawberries and bananas, avocados and yoghurt and discussed our pores and wrinkles and how to look 10 years younger. We did of course have to join in and apply some coffee and coacoa masks to our faces!
The Canal Street project
 This was my second time visiting this particular housing project and I have a very positive impression of the place and those service users living there.Canal Street is a low support housing project by which I mean that the service users/residents living there are effectively living independently and are capable of living on their own and looking after themselves. They are relatively stable and all are drug and alcohol free.  On this visit, only 3 service users attended and participated in our course. We were informed by a member of staff that most of the others were not there that day as they were out and about or had various appointments with doctors etc. This in itself was encouraging to me as it suggested that the residents living there were stable enough to function in the real world and were motivated enough to carry out day to day activities, somthing which I noticed was somewhat lacking among the service users I met at the NCR, which is a very different place entirely and caters for service users with significant drug and alcohol addiction issues as well as mental health problems.

On my first visit I had really felt encouraged when I met a particular resident who was very gregarious,articulate, bright and motivated. He spoke openly about his previous experience of  being homeless and having to be very particular about the bushes he would select to sleep under and he also talked about a full time one year course he was doing with the Gaeity School of Acting, which he was really enjoying. He also spent quite a lot of time at the gym as was evident from his noticeably large and well developed biceps. He was a wonderful example of a man who had been homeless who did not fit the stereotype (of drug user, alcoholic etc) and was making something of himself.  The other residents I met were lovely as well and included a Scottish guy from Glasgow and two women who participated in the course that day (cookery and healthy eating) but were fairly quiet spoken. You would never guess to look at any of them that they had once been homeless and (more likely than not) sleeping rough somewhere. Which just goes to show that homelessness is something that could happen to any of us.

The particular building this project is housed in is by far the nicest of all the places I've seen and there's even a small outdoor patio/garden area which is a real sun trap when there's any bit of sunshine and it's quite peaceful sitting on the bench with the windchimes and birdsong in the background. The residents all look fairly "normal" and are clean and tidy and reasonably healthy looking, in stark contrast to some of the service users I've seen in other projects who look like they have been sleeping rough and/or have an addiction of sorts.

Harcourt Street Emergency Shelter
I visited a "wet"shelter off Harcourt Street one of the Fridays I was working and it was a totally different kettle of fish. I was waiting at the reception to meet B who was going to show me around and tell me a little bit about the project and was witness to one of the staff getting abused by one of the service users. Certainly a place where you would need a thick skin to work there!   B showed me some of the bedrooms which seemed cramped, dirty and untidy with clothing strewn everywhere and the bedclothes unmade. There was also a strong odour of drink and sweat, a heady combination! There were also "wet"rooms where service users could watch TV and have a few cans while they were at  it. There was also another living room area where service users could relax without being surrounded by other service users who were using or drinking. Needless to say all of the residents were watching TV in the "wet"room and the "dry"room was empty at that hour of the day. B also showed me the doctor's surgery  from where he (it was a 'he' in this case) dispensed methadone and the needle exchange press whereby service users who were using could deposit used needles in a secure and hygienic box and exchange them for a new needle. It occurred to me that whatever you might think of  emergency hostels or homeless shelters allowing clients to shoot up, at least  it was with a view to harm reduction and the knowledge that homeless drug users could shoot up in relative safety, using clean and sterilised needles.

Thought for the day...
One thing that I have learned through my (limited) dealings with the homeless  people I have encountered in the last few months is how much they are just ordinary people with ordinary problems.  There seems to be a perception amongst some quarters (not naming names here but I can think of a few people with this perception!) that homeless people are all drug addicts and alcoholics and that they are lazy people who don't want to work, dangerous and to be feared. If anything, I have found that the reverse is true. While there are undoubtedly many homeless people with drug addiction, mental health and alcohol issues, there are also those who don't have any addiction problems but have merely ended up homeless by virtue of circumstances. This perception was summed up for me recently when I spoke to M from Sligo, a homeless guy in his late 20s or thereabouts who I stopped to chat to when he was stopping passersyby and asking them for money. I didn't give him any money but since I recognised him, I stopped to talk to him for a few minutes and asked him where he was planning on staying for the night. He was very personable and told me that he remembered me also because I was "calm" and "down to earth" and that unlike other members of the public whom he stopped on occasion, I didn't seem to look around nervously when he was talking to me. He said that they seemed to be "afraid" of him simply because he was homeless.

Nurse Ratchid in the Homeless Shelter

Yesterday's visit to the homeless housing unit in the NCR was an eye opener. I guess I am a little naive and idealistic when it comes to dealing with real life at times. Almost every member of staff I've met in Dublin Simon Community so far has been lovely but yesterday I realised that  just because you work in the area of homelessness, doesn't necessarily mean that you are a nice person or suited to the job. I guess you could say the same about any job really but I've always thought that certain fields, particularly the charity/NGO sector attracted a certain type of individual. In a nutshell, my impression was that that particular individual tended to be fairly idealistic, liberal, altrusitically minded, nonconformist and generally a caring and empathetic person. Not quite Mother Teresa but not far off. I got quite the shock yesterday to discover that that is not always the case.

Let me elaborate.....Myself and S.got the bus to the NCR yesterday in the afternoon to visit the project as per usual. The course topic for that day was sleep and issues around sleep-too much of it, too little, insomnia etc. . . S was actually delivering the course and I was interested to see how she would carry it off as I'm hoping to pick up a few tips and deliver a course of some description myself at some point.

Am getting to know some of the service users a little bit at this stage, they're beginning to recognise me too which is nice and we're now on first name terms. We've progressed beyond shy smiles and curious glances to beginning to engage in conversation.I'm discovering the more I see of them, the more I like them and the more I hope to engage with them and earn their trust. So far my experience has been really positive and I've found most of the homeless service users in this particular residence to be very friendly,humble, down to earth and good humoured people.
S's delivery of the course struck me as a little bit unstructured and not particularly well organised but she has a great personality and a good rapport with the service users so she was able to pull it off. The same people appear to attend all the courses and the 3 ladies who attended the sexual health talk were there as well as 3 of the men that I'd seen before. Two people in particular were particularly garrulous and didn't need much encouragement to talk about their problems.One of the men said something interesting at the talk. He pointed out that when he used to be homeless and sleeping on the streets, all hell could be breaking loose around him and he would still sleep like a baby whereas since he'd moved into sheltered housing, he had greater trouble sleeping and found that now he was sensitive to the slightest noise. A dripping tap would bother him so much that he would not be able to get to sleep unless he had turned it off.

I really felt for one of the ladies who is an alcoholic but has been off the drink for a while now. However, she's having a really tough time lately not only because she was off the drink but also because of  insomnia which was really affecting her mood and making her cranky and irritable. The problem seemed to be the fact of all of them living virtually on top of one another in the shelter. She was on a bottom floor and was unable to sleep because of one of the other residents who was just above her. According to her, she could hear everything the resident above her was doing-watching TV, moving furniture, listening to the radio etc and as a result she was not able to sleep with all the noise.  It was easy to see that she was at the end of her tether and as someone who suffers from insomnia occasionally myself, I could really relate to her problems. I asked her if she'd spoken to the manager and if there was a possibility of moving to another room but she explained that she'd asked several times but nothing had happened. She'd also spoken to the resident in question and asked her to keep the noise down but to no avail.

After the course and before we left for the day, an unpleasant(ish) incident occurred. S was talking to M, one of the more senior members of staff at the housing project and I was standing beside S chatting to a girl who was a full time volunteer in the shelter. I said to the volunteer that one of the ladies had asked to move room and as I spoke, the lady in question appeared and a sort of confrontation between herself and M (the senior member of staff) occurred. She must have realised that she was being discussed and addressed her complaint to M, explaining that she couldn't sleep because of the person above her.M responded in a very aggressive manner implying that that was not the case at all and that she (the service user) was overreacting and exagerrating. She practically implied that the homeless resident was nuts and that she had nothing to be complaining about. Not being fully conversant with the facts, I didn't say anything but from what had been said by this lady during the course when she was explaining her issue with the resident above her, I was inclined to believe her and sympathise with her. As far as I could tell, the issue was not whether or not the resident was exagerrating about her problem with the tenant above her, but rather the fact that the room situation wasn't working. Surely the management could just move her to another room temporarily at least and see if that alleviated the problem? I have to admit I was really shocked by the way that M,(this senior member of staff) spoke to the resident and her aggressive attitude. I had never met this member of staff before but she came across almost as a Nurse Ratchid character from the movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". My blood was boiling as we were leaving for the day as I felt someone like her should not be working with vulnerable homeless clients. I guess maybe I should give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she was having a bad day or had her own problems but I have to say that she didn't come across as someone who was particularly approachable or empathetic. It made me wonder what the standard of care was like in other housing projects and residential settings for the homeless, the elderly and those with physical disabilities or mental illness....food for thought.

Homeless sevice users and Sexual health

Yesterday a tutor from Dublin AIDS allowance came to the housing project on North Circular Road to give a talk on sexual health to the service users there. It was fascinating to say the least, not least from my own point of view.

The tutor was excellent, very professional and thorough while managing to be entertaining, approachable, relaxed and open at the same time. You quickly felt at ease and her manner inspired confidence and trust. You knew immediately you could ask her anything without embarassment or fear of being judged. Considering that there were approximately 28 people in total living in this house, I was surprised at the low turnout for the talk, considering the subject matter! Only 4 service users in total attended,one awfully obese lady had to be almost literally dragged from bed (where I understand she spends most of her time) and one reluctant gentleman sat in on the talk halfway through the presentation, just at the point where the tutor was demonstrating the symptoms of syphilis on the screen. Nasty viewing! I almost thought I was going to lose my breakfast and could barely look at the screen!

I observed the ladies who had attended the talk throughout the presentation and one thing that struck me was how streetwise they were in many ways, yet how naive when it came to their own sexual health. I guessed that none of them had ever had ever had any sort of talk about sexual health as a child or teenager and their knowledge was gained from pieced together anecdotes, gossip and chat and from painful personal experience. Many of the facts about the various STDs including AIDS were news to me and I had questions of my own but it was obvious from the questions that one lady asked that many myths still abounded such as the possibility of catching an STD from a toilet seat.

I noticed the girl I'd seen the last time I had been there-the girl who had the awful, weeping sore on her leg. She was looking much better than the last time I'd seen her and looked alert and "with it". Incidentally, her leg was much improved although still incredibly swollen looking. She must have been to see a doctor in the interval between my first visit to the home and today. She seemed interested in the presentation and participated actively asking questions. Of the 3 ladies who attended, she was the youngest and seemed to have the most knowledge of some of the STDs. As it turned out, she was speaking from personal experience as she informed the tutor that she herself had Hepatitis C. I know next to nothing about Hepatitis C but from my Google research, it seems it primarily is spread by blood-to-blood contact associated with intravenous drug use.  The same girl  matter of factly referred to the fact that she'd had an abortion at one point but it seemed from what she said that she hadn't really understood what had happened to her or what the doctors had been doing to her at the time.....it also appeared from what she was saying that she had also undergone a smear test but hadn't understood what this was or why she'd had one.

The ladies were polite and interested and particularly enjoyed the practical demonstrations, especially when the tutor showed them how to put a condom on properly (things have moved on from bananas it seems, she had a dildo for the occasion!) and passed around a female condom (which I'd never seen myself) and some scented mouth guards for use when  performing oral sex! There was plenty of eye rolling from the gentleman who attended, some lewd (but harmless) jokes directed his way and lots of laughter.

All in all, an interesting day.....

What Dublin Simon is really about.....

Last Friday (16th March) I started volunteering in the Dublin Simon office as part of the Learning and Development team. Since I don't work Fridays anyway, I figured I might as well do something useful with my time and that it might assist with this blog in order to get a greater insight into the services available for the homeless in Dublin.

It was a varied and interesting first day. I was introduced to the other staff in the office, sent on an errand down to "Eason's" on O'Connell Street, made a few phone calls to service users who had registered for a course and attended a "team meeting" which consisted of my new boss, another girl in the office and me. I learned a new acronym which was much bandied about the office- SLI (pronounced SLEE). It stands for Support to Live Independently which is a large part of what Dublin Simon Community is about.....helping those who are homeless to get off the streets and enabling them to make that transition to living independently. I learned also about a number of the education projects that Dublin Simon are providing for homeless service users.  Naturally, all courses are provided free of charge to service users and are aimed specifically at them so as well as getting the opportunity to learn a new skill, they have the opportunity to engage with other homeless people in a supportive, non judgemental environment.  One  of the courses was a course in Creative Writing, another was a Coaching and Life Skills course (which I think involved some aspects of CV writing and job skills) and another was centred on Health and Wellbeing and involved teaching participants about basic health and fitness. The first 2 classes would as well as teaching participants about the importance of looking after their health and fitness, allow participants to learn how to use some of the machines in a gym and have  a fitness class.

Around lunch time, myself and Joanne (*not her real name) who like me is also working on a voluntary basis in the office, left the office and took a bus to one of the housing projects on North Circular Road. This was one of the "supported housing " projects where a number of homeless service users lived with members of the Dublin Simon team who were there to care for them and support them.  It was a mixed housing project with men and women sleeping in separate buildings in their own rooms but with communal areas such as the kitchen and an outdoor area with tables and benches. I guessed there were perhaps only 15-20 service users in total living there.  All of them appeared to have addiction problems and/or mental health issues. As soon as we walked into the reception area, we met with a guy who seemed to be in charge of the building who was talking to a teenage boy in the corner and trying to persuade him to see a doctor about something.  The boy seemed very reluctant and didn't say much .As it turned out, it wasn't a boy at all but a girl!  Her face was quite small and very pale and drawn looking. She looked to be almost anaemic and she was wearing a hoodie with the hood up over her head which obscured her features and made her look quite masculine.  At one point, she lifted up her trousers leg to show something to the guy who was talking to her and I got quite a shock. Her whole lower leg seemed to be swollen and contused and to my inexperienced eyes, it looked as if she had gangrene setting in. At any rate, it was obvious that she had a wound of some sort that had become severely infected and it was for that reason that the man in the reception was trying to persuade her to see a doctor. Later on, I asked my colleague what could possibly have caused that awful wound on her leg and she told me that it sometimes happened as a result of injecting- wounds then sometimes became infected.

 Our reason for being there on that day was to meet a tutor who was running a cookery class for the residents. None of them appeared to have signed up for this course but  it was a way of trying to engage with some of the residents through cooking and teaching a life skill at the same time. The lady who was running the class seemed experienced and sensitive to her clients needs. Her approach was quite gentle and patient and if someone didn't want to help chop vegetables or stir the bolognese ingredients in the saucepan, well then, that was perfectly alright. Only 4 or 5 residents showed any willingness to participate in helping cook at all and it was immediately obvious to me that motivation was a significant problem amongst the residents, probably due to the fact that so many of them were battling much more significant issues. The girl with the contused leg seemed to be very unwell- she admitted as much herself and was pale, reticent and showed an aversion to chopping garlic. The smell of it seemed to be putting her off and she refused to eat any of the dinner afterwards saying that she had no appetite despite having eaten nothing all day. Another thing I noticed was that for some of the participants, it seemed to be their first time ever cooking anything as they seemed to have no idea how to peel carrots or chop vegetables and their hand movements were slow and clumsy. As a teacher, I immediately thought " fine motor problems"! It made me wonder what they had eaten all their lives and how they had come this far without learning such basic skills that the average person takes for granted. There was a good chance a couple of fingernails landed in with the bolognese ingredients so there was no way I was sampling it afterwards!!!! Observing one resident eat his dinner later, I thought to myself that his movements were that of an old man's. It took an age for him to bring his fork up to his mouth and he seemed to have a tremor in his hand. According to my colleague, the slow movements and poor coordination are often a side effect  of shooting up heroin and when I saw the same guy's face, it confirmed that theory as his eyes were practically rolling around his head and he couldn't focus at all. As we were leaving later on that afternoon, he was staggering in the hallway and attempting to stand up straight but was unable to and two of the staff had to assist him. Two or three of the residents did show some interest in cooking and one of them, a sweet lady who was an alcoholic,seemed to have some experience of cooking and seemed willing to chat about food. She soon got tired however and went up to her room for a lie-down as she too wasn't feeling very well and had a bad coughing fit which led to her having to be helped up to her room by a staff member. Before we left, I noticed a guy in the kitchen whom I recalled meeting when I was working on the Soup Run a number of years ago. He didn't seem to recognise me but I recognised him as he was quite a memorable character and I recalled chatting to him about books as he was always reading anytime you met him when he was out tapping. He appeared to have lost a leg in the interval and was in a wheelchair but I was glad to see that at least he was no longer on the streets and sleeping rough.

Homelessness and Drug Addiction

I recently attended a course with Dublin Simon Community on drug addiction and homelessness which was fascinating. A lot of the homeless in Ireland have drug or alcohol addiction problems of one sort or another but that is by no means the case for all homeless people you encounter on the streets. Some people inceredibly, manage to avoid going down that route which always amazes me as I'm sure if the positions were reversed and I was to wind up homeless, I would resort to whatever means of temporary escape was available to me.

The temptation must be overwhelming at times as there are no shortage of drug users staying in the hostels and on the streets and drugs are readily available if you want  them.

Anyway, the talk was given by a man involved in training who had worked in homeless shelters in the UK and as such, he had plenty of first hand experience of dealing with people with drug and alcohol addictions. One thing that struck me from what he had to say, was how difficult it actually is to come off a drug like heroin in this country. Seemingly, once a person makes the decision to go off heroin, it can take up to 6 months to be admitted to a detox programme . Six months!!!! What use is six months to someone whose life has fallen apart and who genuinely wants to get off the drug? For economic reasons, methadone  which it seems is an equally addictive drug, is generally prescribed to users trying to come off heroin.
According to what the trainer said, once a user is admitted to a detox programme,  the first criteria is that he or she has to test positive for opiates. This is done by means of  3 (supervised!)urine samples. Users are then generally prescribed methadone. Contrary to what I thought, some people can remain on an 80 ml dose of methadone for ever, as the drug is so difficult to come off that this may be what is required to keep them stable and capable of living a somewhat "normal"life. If a user comes off it too quickly, they can easily relapse.

Pregnant and homeless

Another well overdue post....

So there I am after a leisurely day in town and a cinema date with friends and I meet Shelly(*not her real name) on O'Connell bridge. A sweet little slip of a thing with her back to the wall and cowering from the driving rain in her sleeping bag. I stoppped and asked her if she would like a cup of something hot to drink given the night that was in it and she assured me she was fine, she didn't really drink tea or coffee and anyway, she'd just gotten soup and sandwiches off the Simon Community who had passed by. She told me she was 3 months pregnant and the only thing she was eating at the moment was Cadbury "Flake"bars and drinking Capri-Suns.... I asked her if she wanted to get out of the rain for a bit and go to a cafe just to get warm but she said she was waiting for her boyfriend (also homeless) to come back from Temple Bar where he too was tapping to get enough money for a hostel that night. They'd met 2 years ago on the streets and neither of them did drugs. Her mother was a heroin addict and was dead and  Shelly herself had been on the streets since the age of six. I asked her how much it was for the hostel and she told me 8 euros which didnt seem like an awful lot to me but on such a wet night, people were just hurrying home to their nice warm houses and it seemed unlikely that many would stop. Susie told me herself that her boyfriend had more luck "tapping" for some reason. He wasn't embarrassed to ask people for money but she was. I asked her if she'd slept out much and she told me she had but that herself and her boyfriend were trying to get into a "permanent" hostel ("permanent" being 6 months). She mentioned a place called Beech House (a more long term emergency hostel) which apparently wasn't very nice and said that herself and her boyfriend were trying to find somewhere to rent where a month's deposit wasn't required. She also said that lately it seemed much harder to get a place in a hostel due to the fact that there were now more homeless and more "foreigners". From the way she said this, she didn't seem resentful about it and it didn't seem like she was being xenophobic, she was simply stating a fact.

I gave her a few euros and went on my way to my nice cosy home.

Fleeting meetings

Well the New Year is well and truly over and I'm finally getting around to posting again. Had a bit of excitement there over the last few weeks when I got offered an administrative internship (unpaid) with the Dublin Simon Community. Had made up my mind that I was going to take it as I felt I needed a bit of a change only to find out that I wasn't eligible for it because I didn't fulfill all the requirements of the scheme which was called Job Bridge and was aimed at those unemployed for a period of 3 months or longer. The fact that I have been doing some substitute teaching in the meantime to keep the wolf from the door apparently invalidates me as it would mean I would need to start the whole process of 'eligibility' again and ensure that I do not work even one day of the 13 week minimum that I must stay 'unemployed'!
Crazy huh? In a way am slightly relieved though as I've gotten rather fond of the regular paycheck and wasn't looking forward to living on bread and butter which I definitely would have been if I had taken up the internship....Anyway, maybe it wasn't destined to be....In the meantime, I'm hoping to have some involvement with Dublin Simon in another capacity, perhaps it will have to be on a voluntary basis.


I digress.....

So I havent met any homeless people in the last few weeks and last night, without even trying, I came across 2! One guy was youngish, in his late teens or early 20s and was standing outside the International Bar with a paper cup asking passersby for money. Normally, I'm not a fan of this direct aproach, if anything I'm less inclined to give money but I'd just come out of a meditation class and guess I was feeling extra compassionate and in harmony with the universe as I stopped to chat to him and ended up giving him the contents of my wallet, which amounted to 5 euros. He was delighted with this and very appreciative and told me he was on his way to get a bus to Newbridge where he was staying in a hostel. He didn't need any encouragement to volunteer information and after telling me his name, told me that his brother had died some time ago and he hadn't taken it well and had 'gone on the drink' which resulted in him ending up homeless. Now he was sleeping in hostels, he had 'slept out' a few times in Dublin but wouldn't do it again and hoped that someday he would get a place of his own and would get to do "normal things" and be "just like everyone else."

After our brief chat, I walked on in the direction of my busstop and then spotted a guy on crutches trying to bed down for the night on some flattened out cardboard sheets in a doorway on Dame Street. The doorway was far too narrow for him and it was obvious he wasn't going to be able to fit so he came back onto the street and I stopped him. It transpired he was from Latvia and spoke very little English. I tried to talk to him but quickly realised that it was pretty futile given that he didn't understand a word I was saying. The best I could do for him was buy him a cup of tea and banana and I wrote down the name of Dublin Simon Community and Focus Ireland on a piece of paper for him and told him  (via gestures and pointing) to go to them and see if they could help him.

I walked away thinking about how his situation highlighted the importance of learning the language of the country in which you live and how his inability to speak English was perhaps a large contributory factor to his being homeless ....wonder if any of the homeless agencies employ interpreters to deal with non national homeless people they come across....?

Christmas post

Happy Christmas to all!

Back home for a week or so over the Xmas period. Plan on posting a bit more in the New Year (let's call it one of my resolutions!). Did encounter a few homeless people while I was running around getting a few last minute Christmas presents but didn't get to have a long chat with any of them. One guy was Hungarian and didn't seem to speak much English....once we'd established where he was from, conversation proved virtually impossible. Threw him a few coins and went on my way.

Then I came across a youngish girl openly stopping passersby on Nassau street and she made no secret of why she was homeless. Told me she'd been in care and then went on the streets. Also told me that she'd been raped while on the streets and had a child and that was why she was begging- to get some money together for them. Looking back on our meeting,she told me all this in such a nonchalant, blasé sort of way that I wasn't sure whether to believe her and didn't really process the significance of the statement. In retrospect, assuming it was true (and from my limited knowledge of life on the streets) it could very easily be, it's a fairly shocking and traumatic thing to happen but just underlines the vulnerability of those who are homeless.

On an optimistic note, it's nice to see that so many people in Ireland really care about the issue of homelessness and are trying to do something about it. Was chatting to a couple of the organisers of a group of students from Belvedere College who were staging a sleep-out on O'Connell Street in Dublin in order to fundraise for Focus Ireland and the Fr. Peter McVerry Trust. Great way to foster civic responsibility and an awareness of social justice issues. Really nice, friendly bunch of guys too.Asked how much of the money raised went directly to the charities and they told me 100% which was reassuring to hear. Also restores your faith in humanity in general when you see people being proactive in this way. May be something I look at myself in 2012...spending a night on the streets.... After all, there's not much use writing/blogging about it if I've never experienced it myself, is there? Anyway, just a thought for now......Might see if I can join the Belvedere boys next year....

Down but not out

Yesterday evening I went out with the express intention of talking to another homeless person in order to update the blog as I haven't had a chance to post in a while.... I've been realising a couple of things as I go along with this project.....small things mainly and no doubt I'll learn a lot along the way too but a few major elements that have emerged already for me are a) the importance of that initial 'vibe' or feeling you get within minutes of talking to someone and b) what to say to someone to gain their trust and  c) the importance of personal safety, principally my own in this case since I'm working on my own on this.

I didn't have to lok very hard or for a long time and within minutes of getting into town, I met Jimmy  (*not his real name) on the Ha'penny Bridge beside the entrance to Temple Bar along the Quays. It's one of those spots that you are guaranteed to find someone tapping despite it being one of the most exposed (to the elements) bridges in Dublin and it seems like sheer madness at times for anyone to pick this spot to beg. However, I guess there's some logic to it as there's certainly plenty of footfall along it although you'd wonder how many people that cross it would actually stop to talk to or toss a few coins to the people begging/tapping on the bridge.

Anyway, I spotted Jimmy, who was sitting with his back against the bridge, immediately and asked him if he'd like to go to the Centra shop across the road which I'd scoped out earlier for a cup of tea/hot chocolate. I gave him what by now is becoming my 'spiel' ie. that I wanted to ask him a couple of questions, that I wasn't a member of the Garda Síochána or a journalist and that I simply wanted to talk to him and learn about his experience of homelessness for my blog.
Anyway, Jimmy clearly didn't have much else to do and must have figured that he'd nothing to lose by talking to me and agreed to come for a cup of tea with me pretty willingly although he did tell me he had to try and get into a hostel before 8 p.m. (seems this is roughly around the time they stop admitting people) and he'd have a 20 minute walk to get to the hostel so he'd have to go around twenty to 8. This suited me fine as I had a dance class at 8 anyway and was just killing time in a productive way, in a manner of speaking.

My first impressions of Jimmy were that he was young (by no means the youngest person I've ever seen tapping but young nonetheless), that he seemed fairly bright and together and that he was pretty forthcoming. I told him that I would not write about anything he didn't want me to mention and he assured me saying, "Don't worry, I'll let you know if any of the questions are too intrusive".  As we walked into the Centra cafe together  (me slightly nervous admittedly as it was the first time I'd ever gone for coffee with a homeless person), he spotted someone he knew at the coffee machine. As  we were pouring our tea, the person he knew (an older guy) greeted him and I though I heard him ask Jimmy " Are you looking?" As it turned out, I had heard correctly and Jimmy referred to it later on during our conversation when I asked him what the toughest aspect of being homeless was . He replied, "staying clean" and said "You heard what that guy asked me".

So Jimmy it seemed, was a former heroin addict. He told me he'd been clean a year and was on methadone and attending a clinic in Castle Street. He was from Swords and had been on heroin since he was 14 and was kicked out of home by his Ma as a result. He had been living with his on-off girlfriend (though it was now very definitely off) in Naas but had no friends in Dublin he could stay with. When I asked him about this, he said,"There are no friends on the streets, only acquaintances". From this I inferred that he'd more or less cut all ties with previous 'friends' whom may also have been addicts, which must be a difficult thing to do in some ways. When I told him that he seemed like a bright enough guy and asked him if he had ever worked or had a trade, he told me he spent 2 years training as a chef but didn't finish the training (he didn't elaborate on the reasons for this and I didn't ask but presumably  it was related to his heroin addiction). He would love to get a job now he said but it wasn't that easy. When I enquired as to whether he was able to claim any sort of welfare benefits, he told me that there was a homeless payment of some sort which he could claim. When I asked him what his worst experience of being homeless was, he told me about a night when he was attacked and beaten up by 3 guys who spotted him tapping outside of the pub they had been in. I was fairly shocked by this but guess it's kind of an 'occupational hazard' particularly here in Dublin. I enquired as to whether the men were staff working in the pub but he told me that they were just a couple of guys who'd been drinking in the pub....At this point in the conversation, Jimmy was making moves to go and reminded me that he had to try get into a hostel that night. I asked him what he did if he couldn't get in anywhere. He replied that he just walked around the streets all night as the streets were too dangerous to sleep on.....

Chance meetings

Yesterday was a day of torrential downpours. The rain wasn't too bad in the morning but grew heavier in the late afternoon and combined with the gale force winds made for miserable conditions later on that evening. You'd have really felt sorry for anyone who had to be out in that weather or was homeless and as myself and a friend walked towards Temple Bar on our way to a swing dance class and past the group camped outside the Central Bank (an off shoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement), I couldn't help but be impressed by the fact that they were still there (several weeks later) and  feel sorry for them in their makeshift camp with tents that looked  pretty unsuited to the conditions.

Later on that evening, emerging from the class into the gloomy evening and the driving rain, I ducked into a doorway near my bus stop where I found myself standing next to a man, who judging by his appearance, which resembled that of a tramp-dirty, smelly, unshaven etc.- and the strong odour  of drink coming from him, was an alcoholic and /or homeless. I didn't want to ask him outright but in the ensuing conversation, he mentioned that he'd been homeless for six or seven years. He was remarkably lucid, good humoured and chatty and said he was looking forward to getting out of the rain and "having a can" when he got home.When I enquired as to where "home"was, he mentioned that he was staying in a sheltered housing unit for men in the Summerhill area of the city. Though he spoke with a strong Dublin accent, he told me that originally he was from Westmeath but that in Dublin, people thought he sounded like he was from the country and when he was in Westmeath, they thought that he sounded like a real Dub!

I didn't want to pry but I was interested to hear about his experience of being homeless and asked him what his experience of the homeless hostels he'd stayed in had been like. He mentioned that often there were 4-6 people in a room so there was very little privacy and that the general practice was to try to fill up the rooms as much as possible. Often, he said, people chose to stay on the streets because they didn't want to go into the hostels. When I enquired as to why, he told me that generally it was because of the problems that arose with so little privacy and the frustrations that arose from the situation-tensions leading to fights breaking out, stealing, drug problems and snoring of course! Some nights he told me the Night Bus (a bus which brings homeless service users to hostels/shelters when beds are available) would come along and pick him up and bring him to a hostel. Other  nights, there might not be any beds available and the Night Bus would simply turn up, supply him with a sleeping bag and drive off......

As we were talking, I wondered how old he was. I suspected he was in his mid 50s but he could just as easily have been in his late 40s. It was hard to know. Life on the streets and alcoholism had clearly taken their toll on his health and physical appearance as he was quite thin and his face was pretty lined. His teeth were in appalling condition and were black and rotten looking. We continued our conversation on the bus home (it turned out he was taking the 123, as was I) and chatted generally about things. He seemed sweet. When it came to his stop, he turned to me and asked my name and said maybe he'd see me again. I wondered if he was lonely. As he was getting off the bus, he looked over his shoulder and gave me a timid sort of wave. I wonder if I will see him again....

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.