Ireland's homeless champion Sr Stanislaus Kennedy has said that “It
is a scandalous indictment of Irish society” that Ireland's homeless
problem increased during the Celtic Tiger.
Speaking at a Focus Ireland Youth homeless Conference last week Sr
Kennedy said the homeless charity is now dealing with people who are the
fourth generation of a family to be homeless.
She said that there had to be, “a truly seismic shift” in society's
attitude to all children if true equality was to be achieved.
Sr
Kennedy, a member of the Religious Sisters of Charity, told the
conference that she, “Found it truly scandalous that one-quarter of the
unaccompanied children that the HSE encounter are under the age of 12.”
Revealing that 800 people used the homeless out-of-hours service in
Dublin in 2009, up from 485 in 2006, she said that while there had been
improvements in services provided for the homeless, “we have taken a
step backwards, and the problem of youth homelessness is actually worse,
and this is not acceptable.”
She also cautioned the incoming government against side-lining the
issue because of the difficult economic situation in the country, and
she claimed that dealing with the consequences of youth homelessness
would cost more than preventing it.
She urged the new administration to put policy initiatives in place
to deal with the problem during its first six months in office and
claimed that if this is done, “I really believe that we can end youth
homelessness in Ireland.”