'I just wouldn't have lasted another year on the streets'
More than 5,000 people of all ages and classes are believed to be homeless in Ireland, writes Alison O'Riordan
Sunday January 03 2010
'IF YOU had put me in a fridge, I would have been warmer," a homeless man said.
Like most other people, I rushed through the Christmas, spending a shocking amount of money while quietly, yet knowingly, forgetting those on the margins.
As selfish as it sounds, it was too much of an effort to take my gloves off to give some money to a homeless man. The bitter weather cut through his cheap clothing while I was all wrapped up in my winter's warmest, going from one heated building to the next.
I even had the audacity to complain to my mother about how this year's Christmas dinner was not as good as other years because it lacked the potato gratin from Marks & Spencer's.
Like many people, I take it for granted that I have food on my table, fresh clothes, a hot shower, and most important of all, a roof over my head, while other poor souls wake up on hard ground, soaking from the rain and shivering in the bitter wind.
As I looked around me at the Merchants Quay Day Centre in Dublin, they were about to feed more than 200 homeless people, of all ages and all classes.
There were more men than women, and a lot of the men were very well dressed, but somehow distressed looking. Some were now on the streets because they couldn't afford to pay their mortgages and put food on the table any more. It may sound patronising, but they're the lucky ones. Despite the turkey and ham dinner with all the trimmings, and the attempted festive atmosphere, the junkies are pale and frighteningly thin as they pick at their food while seemingly staring into a chasm. Some are already stoned or drunk, others just strung out, already lost in the vacant world of the addict.
Dougie Smith, a 38-year-old recovering drug addict, has proven there is a way off the streets. Over a cup of tea, he jumped from topic to topic explaining to me how he first slept rough in 1998.
"I was a late starter in life for class-A drugs. The acid
house raves had just come out in England at the time, around 1987, and I used to be going over to England to learn to DJ. That's when I started taking ecstasy, hash and LSD. And then on the come-down it would be valium. I drank alcohol very rarely as it would just make you thirstier. And so my downward spiral began by taking a cocktail of drugs and not knowing half the time what I was being given. Heroin came back on the scene and I fell into a heroin addiction. It was only on coming back to Ireland that I came to the realisation I was a drug addict," he admitted.
"I thought if I just put an end to heroin, everything else would fall into place. I would get a job, meet a girl and buy a house. But it didn't work out that way. I would have been 12 years on the streets this May if I didn't get housed this year by Focus Ireland. It was a long road of coming into places like Merchants Quay and working with a team leader," he said.
"I call those 12 years on the streets 'the circuit' as you start off in the worst hostel you could ever imagine; you wouldn't put an animal in it. So I left it and slept on a Dublin Corporation site for two years, literally on the grounds at the front doors. The first thing they did was install sprinklers which came on at 5am each morning and there could be eight of us huddled together in sleeping bags getting soaked."
In an average week, many people will sleep rough in Dublin city centre, staying on the streets for a variety of reasons, such as behavioural or addiction problems, or because they might feel intimidated in a hostel. In Ireland, more than 5,500 people are believed to be homeless.
"I used to beg on bridges to feed myself, and I made good money to be honest, but times have changed. I'm down here today in Merchants Quay having some food because I miss the company of people, as it's a big transition being homeless for 10 years and then being given accommodation. I knew if I hadn't been housed this year I wouldn't have lasted another year on the streets," said Dougie. "It can be very dangerous, I used to look after the girls on the streets as frequently they would be attacked by people coming home from a night out. Instances such as urinating on them was very common or throwing a cup of tea on you or spitting on you," he said.
Estranged from his family for years, he was recently re-united with his sister and mother. "In the last two years my whole life has changed dramatically." He says that when his family saw "that I have made the effort to change and do something with my life" they were encouraged.
Having some tough moments along the way, and admitting to occasional relapses, his face lit up when he described to me being given the keys to his new home. "Being handed the keys of my house was like being born again. I was 38 years of age and I was crying at being handed a key. This was the first thing that was finally mine," he said.
Enthusiastic about his burgeoning acting career, he now wants to help the young who often fall into addiction.
Paul Walsh hasn't had a roof over his head since 1999, when he began sleeping in the park in St Stephen's Green. He was there for four years.
"I'm staying in a hostel at the minute but come summer, I'd rather be out on the streets. Some hostels have up to 16 people in a room and it's impossible to sleep, and you get chucked out at 9am in the morning with nowhere to go. I'm a drug user and was barred from my mother's flat by the corporation," he says.
This was the second spell on the streets for the 32-year-old, who spent seven years in prison. "I use heroin and drink a lot. I'm HIV positive as well; I caught it in Mountjoy from using one needle which was passed around. It's because of the night-time you need to drink so it'll knock you out. I'm just so used to it, I've been on drugs since 14 years of age. I've had a bad Christmas living on the streets as the hostels were full. I've been on the streets so long that I know everyone sleeping rough. I sleep with my clothes off and put my runners underneath my head. I counted down the days until Christmas because it depressed me what I was even going to do on that day. Christmas in prison is better than out here, so I'm back on the bottle," he said.
Originally published in
