Recovering from homelessness

rachelgalvo

I was having a conversation with an American/Irish friend and he said that most homelessness is a choice. I thought he was talking through his hole but I remained civil. He said most homeless are drug/alcohol users and if they were to get off the substance, they could easily find a job.

A cousin worked with homeless services a while back and said that mental illness combined with poverty would be the main driver of homelessness and addiction would exacerbate it but not necessarily be the main cause. In fact, many homeless actually start using to cope with the stress and fear on the streets.

I know America's safety net is **** and so is Ireland's so I wonder how easy is it to actually get back on your feet and get a minimum wage job, especially given that many in good jobs can't even afford rent due to our housing crisis.

happyoutscan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058402876/recovering-from-homelessness

Ignore most of what you hear from American's. They are the most insular people in the western world.

Mrs OBumble

Nothing in life is easy.

There are two sorts of homelessness. Recovering from not being able to find a house is easy.

Recovering from complex inter-related psycho-social issues is really hard. It takes way more than a house abd a job, though they do help.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058402876/recovering-from-homelessness

If you read up on the results of Housing First policies all over the world, including the US, you'll see that most people in homeless situations, if given access to accommodation, manage to sustain their situation.

Perks

lol he said easily find a job. Talking through his US of Arsehole

Mental illness is probably the biggest cause along with addiction.

New Scottman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123269917#Comment_123269917

When people were committed to mental institutions, the rate of homelessness for them was surely lower. Pity they closed.

silliussoddius

I seem to remember some legislation a while back that shut down some of the old manky bed sits. Does anyone know if this is the case?

These places might not have been the prettiest, but I’m sure they kept people of the streets.

gipi

Yes, bedsits were banned approx 10 years ago, regardless of condition

thereiver

Most besdsits were fine rooms with bed and furniture a tv only thing is you shared a bathroom with other people .

people were happy to live in them.they were fine for single people.

Speedsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123270405#Comment_123270405

I think it was brought in by the Greens in about 2008/9.

I've an acquaintance who loved his bedsit. While it was small, he had his own shower room, and a door out into the back garden (really a jungle), he'd sit there & listen to the birds while having a cuppa. He was a five minute walk to work, Grafton st etc.

I think there were about 7 or 8 bedsits in the house, and all were en suites. The only shared facility was a telephone in the hall.

They were small enough rooms, and just couldn't accommodate the four burner hobs and fridge freezers required under the new rules. The elderly landlady eventually sold it, and I think it's now used by one of the MNCs to put up visiting executives, so lost to housing really.

My acquaintance begged to be allowed to stay. He was a very private person & loved the slide of his own door in the bedsit. Last I heard of him he was in a house share in Drimnagh/walkinstown and hating it.

Bedsits did need to be better regulated (there were some horrors out there), but I think it may have gone too far and without a plan to facilitate the 3000 or more people who suddenly became homeless.

yagan

Not much ton add except I don't think it's right to say there's no supports in Ireland. There is temporary accommodation but a shortage in long term but I have a feeling a lot of the shoeboxes that were built around Dublin city centre as student accommodation will be rezoned as residential.

Anyhow it's been a decade since my last pass through the US when I spent a week in Hawaii where there was a tent city just outside the Waikiki hotel strip where all the hotel workers lived.

Ireland's safety net is not sh1t.

Bedsits are terrible. A bedroom should be a private space. Living-room and kitchen or kitchenette all the one - grand, but a sleeping quarters should be separate to where visitors watch TV.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123275525#Comment_123275525

Be that as it may, bedsits are less **** than tents.

Not everyone wants visitors.

No one living alone needs 4 hobs and a microwave.

yagan

If I remember rightly the bed sit ban came in to help remove property from the rental market which had collapsed. It primary aim was not for societies benefit as no plan was made for an alternative replacement so the only beneficaries were property owners wanting to improve their asset valuation.

They weren't ideal for long term living but perfect when I was in college and those early years working when most of my free time was out socializing with other people in the same situation.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123275679#Comment_123275679

And absolutely nobody said they do. 🤷‍♀️

I even mentioned kitchenette.

Otherwise, moot points because obviously a roof over one's head is better than a tent, but bedsits are still terrible. Sleeping quarters, like bathroom, should be their own spaces. Kitchen(ette), living room/area, most storage - all fine in the one space. Not everyone wants visitors... and the others do want visitors.

Woodcutting

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123275049#Comment_123275049

The hotel workers lived in tents.? How would that go for hygiene ?Did the workers have access to showers in the hotel ?

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123276706#Comment_123276706

From what I could see there was public facilities like beach showers etc.. Las Vegas is supposedly worse with workers living in storm drains.

thereiver

Bedsits are no longer legal , each rental unit has to have a bathroom, so the amount of rental units on the market fell by half when the new law came into force.You had a bed a tv storage many single people were happy to live in a bedsit

cj maxx

I’ve been close to homelessness a couple of times . First time in America , but for a great bunch of Irish lads . Then in Ireland where I moved to a small village and out of the town .
It gives you perspective