Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE MENDICITY INSTITUTION, Dublin’s oldest working charity, says it has experienced a surge of 50% in people seeking its services in the past year. The increase is being described by the service as “alarming”.
The charity, located near Usher’s Island in Dublin’s south inner city, provides meals six days a week for people who are homeless and vulnerable, in addition to homelessness and integration supports.
Most of its service users – around 75% – are EU migrants from countries like Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
The charity introduced a new service in the past year to help people with a language barrier access emergency accommodation.
As it launched its annual census of service-users today CEO of the Mendicity Institution Louisa Santoro highlighted the finding that almost two-fifths of respondents to their survey only had access to ‘one night only’ bookings in homeless accommodation services – meaning they don’t know from one day to the next where they will be spending the night.
The language barrier was proving a major obstacle for people seeking longer term accommodation – either from homeless services or in the private rental market, she said.
“We have three native speakers here on the staff. We have a Russian speaker, a Polish speaker and a Romanian speaker so definitely it’s attractive for people to come and access supports in their native language,” Santoro said.
Many of the people seeking help from the Mendicity are those who “fall through the cracks” of the system, Santoro said – mostly men who don’t have access to labour supports when they arrive in the country.
“From our census, there were 18 different nationalities in a week using our services. Of those 18 nationalities, only three are English-speaking nationalities.
There’s a huge amount of people that arrived here to work in a time of full employment, that can work – but English is not their first language, so they are at a significant disadvantage.
By the time they seek out help, they are often “a while into their journey” and have used up most of their resources, she said.
The 50% rise in the number of people using the charity’s services daily is down to an increase from 92 in 2018 to 138 this year.
Asked about the factors behind the increase, Santoro said the rising cost of housing in Dublin was continuing to ratchet up pressure on vulnerable groups.
“I mean, this affects every single sector of the population,” she said.
There’s no question that people who are here with English as a second language and working and gaining minimum wage or general operative roles are the most vulnerable when it comes to that high cost of housing.
The Mendicity’s Eastern European native speakers are attached to its employment integration service, which is funded by the Department of Justice.
The charity also runs a workshop for people who are long-term homeless, in addition to the food and day service, which has been in operation since 1818.
Launching their census findings today, Santoro called for a more joined-up approach to services for people who are homeless in the Dublin area.
“Homeless people need daytime supports and the Mendicity Institution provides that facility. The census findings show the demand for our services is increasing substantially.
“Despite this, the Mendicity Institution does not receive any statutory funding to support our daytime service provision which is completely untenable. We need to see this situation rectified by the government to enable us to manage the increased demand for our services.
The fact that the numbers of people using our services daily has increased by 50% since this time last year underlines the scale of the homeless and housing crisis in our society. It also highlights the need for the Government to adopt a multifaceted approach to tackling homelessness.
The solution does not just lie in just providing night-time accommodation, but also in recognising the importance of daytime services and integration and employment supports for homeless people.
The latest homelessness figures showed there are still more than 10,000 people in emergency accommodation in Ireland.
The figures, covering the month of July, showed there were 10,275 people in emergency accommodation in Ireland – 6,497 adults and 3,778 children.
It’s the sixth month in a row the homelessness figure has exceeded 10,000.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Why are travellers considered a vulnerable group again? Most people feel vulnerable in the presence of them
Polemic for green thumbs
FF and reform have being an excellent combination before. Such a crap bill from them.
Ronan, sound like one of those totally biased comment that is of course unless you have fully read the proposed bill which from the tone of your comment you have not but then you would say you have even if you did not. Good that you recognise that FF and reform are an excellent combination though!
Reform of the Seanad is a waste of time and energy. We need electoral and Dail reform. Reform of the Seanad would just be an exercise in “mass distraction”.
I think that’s finally sinking in for people now. Party list or MMR would eliminate the parish pump, public financed elections and lobbying reform would eliminate power of special interests. Giving the president reference to the people power for bills on his own would cut down on uturns and broken promises post election. Tinkering with the senates not going to get us anywhere the bad decisions that got this state into trouble were made in the dail and the cabinet and at closed functions with special interests that’s where reform needs to b focused.
There will be plenty of reform very soon this gov has to and will go to the park very soon
The absolute cynicism and contempt with which FG conducted the Seanad referendum was a disgrace .You would think kenny would have learnt a touch of humility from the kicking he took from voters, but as we’ve seen since the GSOC debacle, he’s still conducting himself the same way.
The way I look at it is that it wasn’t Kenny who took the kicking but rather the voters themselves who are on the receiving end – we have to pay for it and, possibly worse still, put up with this constant stream of proposed reforms that will never happen. We made our bed – I just wish that now we’d lie quietly in it.
‘currently “ignored” representatives of people with disabilities, the elderly and the Travelling community’ Aren’t the elderly already well represented? given the age profile of our public representatives?
There is not one Tasmanian in the Dáil or Seanad. I think this is a disgrace, How can we sleep at night.
Why only those select groups, why not every ethnic minority, race and fungi the dolphin, sure he’s nearly human.
The Seanad is fine as is.
Stupid idea is stupid.
“The Seanad is fine as it is”.
Thanks for the laugh.
The Seanad IS fine as it is – a totally irrelevant home for the semi-retired and the unelectable – paid for by me and thee. What could be finer?
The irish electorate have a wonderful way of mentally inserting things into referendum proposals that aren’t there..the senate one was about reform Lisbon was about abortion, gays, enshrining or destroying neutrality depending who you spoke to. Reform was NOT on the ballot paper. Your choice was keep a chamber of wannabes n hasbeens or loose it, u decided to keep it, under there logic that this chamber, which had never once checked govt power and had never used one of its main powers of review, article 27, should be kept…because its a critical check on govt power.
Many of us tried desperately before the election to explain the illogic of that to the public and tried to tell you that they would never give u real reform but you would not listen. Remember that in 2016 when the candidate nobody in your area voted for suddenly has the title ‘senator’ and a seat in parliament anyway. You made an adult choice and didnt heed warnings that it was a bad one. Learn from it.
Well said Ryan!!
Not true. The government were trying to sneak in other reforms as well and these were also rejected.
Talking about his Mehole again
Typical politician’s this is designed not to represent the people of this country but to look good in Europe
I really hope #BrassNeckNomination doesn’t become a thing…
I hope it does James,,a monthly ‘brass neck’ winner should be announced , the preceding months recipient could hand over a trophy to the incoming ….see who gets it most often …
Gerry Adams can be the brass neck patron
Marginalised groups including Eu foreign nationals living and working in ireland should be represented inthe Seanad particularly as they are not given the opportunity to vote in Irish elections.
You see my point everyone has their own ideas and all the people with them hate the other guys ideas..senate reform is a mirage it can’t b done we should just get rid of it. That doesn’t mean giving the govt more power (the senates never been a barrier to govt power, by design) we can giver further review powers to the president let them refer major proposals that were not in msnefestos or that break election pledges to referendum on presidents absoloutr discretion. There u have a major check on govt without need for an extra 60unelected politicos and the cost of keeping them
The Shinners probably want gun men representatives in the chamber.
I spent months being lambasted on this site for telling you over and over again they would not give you real reform and you were being duped. This is a case where I hate to have been right.
I told you a second chamber can only be one of two things a source of deadlock or rubber stamp as all the proposals show. I told you everybody has their own vision of what reform looks like and all those visions contradict each other. Most importantly I told you that it’s not in the nature of any power structure in this case the government to hand over a potential barrier 2 or limit of its own power. The government would have been crazy from a political perspective to create a radically reformed senate that could be controlled by the opposition and cause US style gridlock, it was never going to happen.
Go back and look up what I said hear me now quote me later.. I told you they would do some tinkering with the university seats and call that reform because it does not require a referendum.
All you did by voting no, and noamount of thumbs down will change this fact, was give the people who you reject in 2016 a six figure salary and seat in Parliament anyway. Senate reforms a mirage and a distraction from the real changes that are needed in our political system.
labour party and fg will be thankful the seanad will be there for the seat losers to have some were to go after next election
I think the important point in this bill – which isn’t referred to above – is that the election of the bulk of senators will be opened up to the general electorate.
In other words, we can get to choose who is elected to the vocational panels – ie Education, Commerce, etc.
It mightn’t be total reform – you would need a referendum to go further – but it’s a step in the right direction….
Don’t be so naive this issue will fall off the radar and never be heard from again the senate is still with these changes a toothless rubber stamp that can’t block bills and if it could that would cause gridlock, there’s no way to win on this issue. So what if the public has vague input kinda sorta…u really think vocational experts will come out of this? PFF it will b the same tired old Greg suits as always. Besides we already have a chamber we elect properly so why would we need another one. The objective of the political establishment here is to tinker around the edges enough to shut reformers up all while avoiding real change and they’re all falling for it.
The Irish electorate always claim to not trust their political leaders but time after time they swollow their horse s1hit and say how tasty it is.
Can FF not accept the verdict of the electorate who voted to keep it as it is?
That is an absolutely false statement, Mark.
The public voted on it’s abolishment and were not given a reform option.
Having said that I don’t see much reform in the FF proposal. More like window dressing.
FF sat there for 15 years without reforming it as reform reports piled up. It can’t b reformed everyone has their own ideas and a consensus is not possible cos those ideas are so different.
I wish the electorate would forget what they learned in civics and CSPE and focus on how real world politics works. The kinda change most want.,a mirror of the fail with some differences around the edges would b expecting the govt to hand over a barrier to their own power..they won’t..FF don’t want such a limit when they’re in next time either which is why their proposals not serious. They want their bills to sail thru nice and quick without backbenchers offering ammrendments and picking them apart.
The big reforms we need are around election financing and the presidency this is a distraction.
Michael, I don’t see how my statement is absolutely false. The choice was to either abolish the Seanad or not. People chose not to abolish it – thereby maintaining the status quo.
One of the most important issues we have to resolve hasn’t even been discussed by our politicians while all this ‘He said this, I said that ‘ stuff is going on here, 90,000 homes need to be built , what scares me now are the salivating solicitors who’ll get millions while the homes remain unbuilt …
That’s a competitive category in Leinster House
have your say