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HOMELESSNESS IS POSSIBLY the biggest issue currently facing Irish society.
All last week TheJournal.ie’s homeless series looked at the plight of people without a home from all corners of the country.
Meanwhile, people in Dublin’s south city centre may have noticed something a little bit different about St Stephen’s Green in the last week.
10 photographs taken by Dublin’s homeless community are currently adorning the railings of the Green across from the Shelbourne Hotel.
The novel exhibit is the latest move for the In Sight project. Six months ago the project had its first exhibition at the Powerscourt Town Centre in Dublin which turned out to be a resounding success.
This new display is closer to what the project’s founders Lynsey Browne and Lucy Ryan were thinking of when they first came up with the concept.
“Well we’re calling it In Sight Out because it’s outdoors. We wanted to do something on the streets – it’s fitting as that’s where a lot of photographers spend most of their time,” Lynsey told TheJournal.ie.
The aim is to increase awareness and to get across the photos and the stories from the people who’ve experienced it (homelessness).
Friends Lynsey and Lucy (who first came up with the idea for In Sight about two years ago when discussing ways to raise funds and awareness of Dublin’s homeless problem) pitched the idea for the project on the Green to local businesses (such as the adjacent Shelbourne Hotel and Adams Auctioneers) and with their support the exhibit has come to life.
All photographs were taken by people living on Dublin’s streets – with 45 people capturing images over the course of 12 months. Each of the pictures featured gives the photographer’s name and a brief description of what it was about the subject that caught their attention.
Meanwhile, one of the photos featured, ‘Me, Myself, and I’ taken by Tomasz Lubczynski on Dublin’s Harcourt Street, has been chosen as the front cover of an anthology of Irish writing, Looking at the Stars, with all proceeds from the book’s sale going to the Dublin Simon Community.
“Tomasz was absolutely delighted when we told him, he’s so proud that his photo was to be on the cover,” says Lynsey.
Of the 45 photographers the project has utilised, Tomasz Lubczynski is one of those who has now progressed to his own accommodation.
“Another photographer, Martin Breen, has now got a job through the Simon Community,” says Lynsey. “There are others we haven’t seen recently though.”
The next move for the project will be to try to expand the photo portfolio into “a collection of postcards, Christmas cards, pictoral guidebooks, calendars, that kind of thing” in conjunction with the Simon Community, says Lynsey.
That will be for next year. For now, the photos on the Green are a moving depiction of the human side of this country’s accommodation crisis.
“Every day we hear more news about the escalating crisis – so much so that we risk becoming immune to the human impact of homelessness,” says Lucy.
Art has the power to create deep connections between those living in mainstream society and those on the periphery.
Photos from this project capture humour, sadness, love, fear, excitement, worry and passions – emotions experienced in every walk of life.
You can learn more about In Sight here. All of the photos involved are available for sale with all proceeds going to the Dublin Simon Community.
The In Sight Out exhibition will continue at St Stephen’s Green across from the Shelbourne Hotel until Monday 12 December.
It should be put at the tds entrance to leinster house.
Our useless center right politician’s have an awful lot to answer for.
Always blame someone else.
@Brian MacCarthaigh:
On your comment only.
It’s the left who dominate the city council not the centre or the centre right.
Get your facts right.
And they blew all that cash on IW when we have a crises as this..
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan:
Everyone who is homeless is the cause of their problem?
@Alan Cooke: the City Council does not have the political power or capacity to address the homeless crisis. The problem lies with the FG and FF government. It’s not a problem that can be solved by the Cuty Council. Of course, you know that and you are just intentionally deflecting from real responsibility.
@Charlie Fogarty: Most are since statistically the majority are suffering with an addiction issue. If you listen to their stories you’ll hear one of people who either refused housing outside of Dublin or were given chances but were thrown out of previous accommodation due to their behaviour, generally either through drug use or inviting homeless friends round to stay the night. Mental health is of course rife through this demographic as well.
I’m not sure what people are expecting politicians to do in that regard, they aren’t doctors or capable of curing psychological or addiction issues which are preventing acceptance in housed communities. Nor should they pander to those who refuse housing on any grounds.
@Rochelle: your views are factually ill informed and well out of date.
@Micheal OLainn:
Rubbish. If the shinners, the lefties and left independents wanted to come together and do something to help instead of fighting over city mottos and other useless causes they could. Building plazas, spending budgets on road works like the new not necessary footpaths in ballsbridge, creating cycle lanes, there are more important things the the left could be doing instead of always pointing the finger at others. The money being wasted by the city council can be used for social housing. The council should have been heavily involved with the modular housing instead of tut Tuting it and claiming it’s not fit for purpose.
@Rochelle:
So someone in a cycle of addiction and sleeping rough should be considered unsalvageable? I hear this opinion more and more in Ireland today and it doesn’t bother me that it seems devoid of empathy. It bothers me because it chooses to stick ones head in the sand and not try create a workable and long term solution.
People like yourself seem to think that funding for mental health and addiction services will just take money directly from your pocket. Problem that is clear to me is we already paying for the temporary stopgaps which are becoming less and less effective.
So let’s get this straight Goofy? You’re saying the city council should reverse 3 decades of neo liberal policy which left housing provision to the free market with catastrophic consequences? And the council should build the 100k or so of affordable and social housing that’s required to resolve this epidemic? I agree with you by the way. Just wondering how the council are going to manage this in the face of the right wing political establishment which you speak for?
@Alan Cooke:
“The money being wasted by the city council can be used for social housing. The council should have been heavily involved with the modular housing”
It’s getting to the point where you do have to question the inactivity of DCC on this. The funding has been available for some time and even if the Rapid Build Housing Programme wasn’t as rapid as hoped, it still got started and finished.
I would wonder how easy it is to find suitable locations though. Especially now that people who have kept sites derelict for years see a chance to gouge as another bottleneck is firmly in place.
@Billy Mooney:
As I mentioned if your lot, the lefties who could do something, came together and acted this problem could be sorted. However finger pointing arguing and excuses are the only thing the left are capable of doing. Your all too busy sitting on your a**es dreaming up ways of how to outdo one another. Like that stupid suggestion you have of printing money for solving all our problems.
You’re a political parasite and a macroeconomic illiterate Goofy. There can never be a shortage of money at a macro government / central bank level. They issue the money and can never run out of the stuff. The only limitation is the availability of real resources ( land, energy, skilled labour etc ) and we have enough of those to provide everyone with a decent and affordable home. The homeless epidemic is de facto government policy. But you know that as you speak for the interests of the billionaire class.
@Billy Mooney:
Zimbabwe ran out of money. They just kept printing it and then ran out of paper. The value of the zim dollar collapsed. Can you not get that into that empty void? You can’t print cash indefinitely without something to back it up.
@Alan Cooke:
“You can’t print cash indefinitely without something to back it up.”
The States said hi and lol.
In the last recession, there was a law that owners couldn’t let a property become derelict. Fix it up or sell it, I remember. Owners had been holding onto empty houses until prices went up. So I’ve often wondered what happened to this law, and how local councils can ignore it.
In USA they found it was cheaper and better to house the homeless.
Human needs- as in Maslow pyramid show there is no progress unless human NEEDS are received first.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/housing-homeless-can-save-money/
Yesterday I visited Dublin City Centre for the first time in a very long time. I saw lots of homelessness but felt it was now no different in Cork or Lumerick. What did disturb me was when I was waiting for the Luas on Abbey St. I had a bag which I carried on my shoulder and out of the corner of my eye I spotted two guys behind me and the gestured to the other with a nod and I knew I was a target. I left them know I saw them by turning and staring straight at them. Then I walked away to the back of the queue. There were three elderly people there. I stood behind them to notice another male and female now sizing the three of them up. I again left them know that I was paying attention. Next thing another male also homeless walked down through the crowd of people waiting for the Luas. He seemed to be playing ‘distraction’ for the others and caused everyone in the crowd to have to take one step back and into the hands of the other four. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did get something. Not all homeless do this but these were a homeless gang and need to be distinguished from homeless beggars.
FG’s free market ideology prevents a solution for the housing crisis.
The solution is a publicly funded programme of construction social housing on a sufficient scale to meet the needs of lower income families. Rents have become unaffordable. Non tracker mortgage rates are too high.
FG and FF will not solve the crisis.
Publicly funded? I think you mispelt that Michael…its actually spelled tax payer not “publicly”
Most nations issue their own floating currency and so face no financial constraint within that currency. They do not require taxation in order to spend. In fact the money only exists to be taxed back out of circulation is that the state spent the money into circulation in the first place.
We should be asking why our establishment political class led us into the monetary trap of the Euro.
@The Clarifier: I did not want to refer to Denis O’Brien, Dermot Desmond and those who don’t pay taxes but reap the benefits.
And of course Apple who have €19 billion belonging to us while our government fights tooth and nail to ensure the corporate parasites get to hang on to their dodged taxes.
@Billy Mooney: Apple do not have 19billion belonging to us. Billy you are as deluded as ever and as blinkered as ever.
Billy as usual like his AAA buddies feeding the public with lies and half truths . The 19 billion according to the EU is for other member states and they want the Irish governorate to be the tax collector only.
@Billy Mooney:
Mugabe did that in Zimbabwe, 100 trillion dollar notes by the brick for a loaf of bread. That really work well Wally. You do talk crap.
I have an idea. ‘We’ could all stop blaming everybody else and hold ‘ourselves’ accountable. One way this could be started is: All those people who refused to pay water charges (even though they COULD afford to pay) how about all of those pay the equivalent of what they should have paid on water bills to charities for the homeless? A couple of hundred million could be raised pretty quickly. I would love to see them back up what they called solidarity when they were marching against paying for water with real action, ie: open up your wallets and share that solidarity out to your fellow humans suffering on on our streets. I would say it’s over 200 euro on bills that were paid by those who did pay.
So if a million people didn’t pay, that would raise 200million , now how far would that go in showing everybody that the solidarity was real. But I will once again be proved wrong, the real me me me syndrome will be prominent here and not the so called solidarity.
@Nick Drake:
What’s missed is that people who did/didn’t pay already give to charities. Generously when you consider how the average person has been hit in the past decade. It is government policy that has led us down this road. Of course, personal responsibility should be considered in some cases but the majority of people struggling today are in dire straits due to no fault of their own.
The idea that a solution is for people to depend more heavily on homeless charities is ludicrous.
Nick, The water charges ( banker tax ) and the homeless epidemic are both symptoms of the same problem. That is the capitalist system which exploits the many to enrich the few. The homeless crisis and poverty generally will not be resolved through charity. It can only be resolved through fundamental change of the system so that we use the resources of society to meet human need rather than profit accumulation.
Do you have shares in a ‘charity’ or something? People already help out as they can. But no one is helped by setting up yet another company to pay high salaries to directors. If we divide your 200 million by the amount homeless people we first have to subtract €200,000 or so each for the directors, of course. Who invest it in property… and around we go again.
+of
I work clearing out vacant property I have yet come across one that has not been trashed, just recently did one for a family their elderly aunt passed away a few months back she never married took a while to find her family, her home still with power and in ok condition expect for grounds was broken into by a few homeless people that trash it. They could of lived there comfortable but trashed it and lived among the trash for months.
The problem is bigger than houseing only a small few need housing and the government know if they provide houseing it will cost them millions in upkeep and what community would want people getting free homes and trashing them bring drugs, crime etc… to their door steps.
The best thingn would be a place like a care home with the right trained and qualified staff to help these people with their issues get them sobber get the right medication for their illness so they can live normally.
But this would cost millions to, much cheaper to provide the little they do and let people die or stort them self’s out.
Homelessness art.
Have the middle class liberals started collecting it yet?
@Frederick Burden:
What would you see yourself as Freddy-B? Working class conservative?
The enfant terrible of the liberal dystopia establishment.
I like it!
Has a ring to it…….
How many are homeless and not part of an organised network that rake in hundreds of Euro a day?
It is good that the exhibition is highlighting this social and human crisis and visually drawing attention to the plight of the victims.
‘I care about the homeless, but here is a story about why I don’t really.
Also, personal responsibility must come
Into this, have I seen the hosing policy and rental crisis in Ireland recently? Yes…but drugs and and, crime!’
Charity shouldn’t be doing the work of the government. This is getting worse and worse and you can’t say that’s down to personal responsibility.
What sort of an ars*hole takes a pic of somebody sleeping rough. If I ever saw someone doing that I’d tell to f~ck off and help the person instead of posting their misfortune to world. It seems to be more about how many likes you can get nowadays
@Jake Gundersonn: If you read the Article you will see that all the images on display have been taken by Homeless people???
Y,all can pretend you care,But I’m always alone, and my body and heart is like ice, its crowed and cold in my homeless life.
have your say