Homelessness is the modern version of ‘no room at the inn’, warns archbishop

The level of child homelessness has been strongly criticised by Archbishop Michael Jackson who said it was a “stain” on our society.

As the country prepares to ­celebrate Christmas, Dr Jackson, who is the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop Glendalough, drew a parallel between the Christ child in the manger and a child in Ireland today “on the outside of the provision of hospitality or security”.

He said it was “very chilling” that there is an “excess of money somewhere” and yet people were queuing for food in “front of our eyes” at the Capuchin Day Centre recently.

“If ever we had on our streets a contemporary expression of the ­scriptural verse ‘There is no room in the inn’, that is it,” he told the Irish Independent.

“There is an escalation of people for whom the aspiration to live in a place of safety and security is ebbing as they increase in years. There are more and more children who have no sense of a conventional home life.”

As well as child homelessness, Dr Jackson highlighted the plight of older and disabled people who are homeless and called for the crisis to be “addressed in a structured and compassionate way”.

Acknowledging that Christmas can be a difficult time for the bereaved, those who are alone, and those recently arrived in Ireland, he said: “It’s not only a ­difficult time; it’s a time where aloneness almost takes over from loneliness, and that is a very difficult space to inhabit. There are other people who do not have a hearth for their heart. They have nowhere to gather as family and friends.

“That can happen for a number of reasons. Some people are unfortunate; some people fall on very hard times; some people are in Ireland for the first time in their lives; some people are in Ireland because they didn’t want to be here; some people have just been plain unlucky.”

Dr Jackson also expressed solidarity with those who do not find “Ireland a place of welcome”. Speaking about the rise in anti-migrant and anti-refugee protests, he regretted that many ­people are “tremendously influenced” by an “international social media” which made it “very easy for people to escalate sentiment against others”.

“We need to be vigilant and people who have capacity need to speak for those who don’t, they need to engage with people who haven’t got a voice,” he said.

The Anglican church leader, who is chairperson of the Dublin City Interfaith Forum, which fosters dialogue between faiths, said there was significant “unseen work” taking place in relation to “people who speak differently, look differently, from the conventional, inherited Irish person”.

“The thing that we need to remember is that Ireland, as an island off Europe, needs more and more people of what we call diversity in order to create and sustain a functioning and a flourishing society. We ought not to fear the people we don’t know and understand.

“I feel for young people who have come here, and against all the odds, have made it and find themselves pushed into the wall. It is really important to engage in dialogue, which is talking to people, embracing them, hearing their story, and sharing something of who you are with them.”