Do you know anyone who's homeless?

catbear · 23-04-2016 02:14PM

a best friend got deep into drugs in college, he dropped out and no one heard about him for years until a friend from his college days found him lying strung out in a gutter on a Paris street.
He was brought back, rehabed but got involved in drugs again and had the absolute crap beaten out of him for a drug debt. Don't know where he is now, probably dead. His younger brother followed him into drugs but was brain dead after an overdose when he was 20. Both came from a lovely home, he never complained growing up there.
I see the parents every now and again and feel it could happen to any family.

BrayRep · 23-04-2016 02:26PM

Heroin, I presume, knows no class

23-04-2016 02:28PM

FTA69 wrote: »

but it was better than ringing home and ending up back in Ireland in failure.

This is the attitude that has left a lot of Irish people (men mostly) living terrible lives in London in particular, I don't get it at all. Nobody thinks those who come back are a failure, in fact family are glad when people come back.

Being homeless or living in a dive just not to move home is insanity imo.

biko · 23-04-2016 02:29PM

I knew a man that was homeless, mainly due to addiction to alcohol.
He died a couple years back, hopefully better off now.

BrayRep · 23-04-2016 02:39PM

Marissa Obedient Muzzle wrote: »

This is the attitude that has left a lot of Irish people living terrible lives in London in particular, I don't get it at all. Nobody thinks those who come back are a failure, in fact family are glad when people come back.

Being homeless or living in a dive just not to move home is insanity imo.

I guess there are many different recipes that make up someone dealing with that problem. If you are drinking a lot and underfed you are not going to be thinking straight. There would definitely be pride circling around in the mix though, for a lot of people.

The flying mouse · 23-04-2016 03:11PM

Not all but most people homeless people have some sort of addiction issues, Mine being alcohol,You get so caught up in your addiction that is the primary reason for you living, you eat drink think addiction and how to feed it.
When i was living in that caravan with no facilities whatsoever, I thought it was great, go out get drunk and fall back into a filthy place every day/night ,It was in Portugal where this happened so the cold was not a worry and i washed myself by diving into swimming pools of bars or friend houses, and thought nothing of it, wow its cringe worthy now, but back then all that mattered was my addiction and home family and everything think else came a wayback second.

MilesMorales1 · 23-04-2016 06:16PM

FTA69 wrote: »

You should do an Ask Me Anything mate, I think it'd be great to hear your perspective and perhaps people will learn something about the reality of homelessness as opposed to the preconceived notions they often have.

Aye thats a good idea, I'll look into it.

I've heard of how often ex servicemen become homeless (I'm from the UK) and its shocking it is. The government doesn't look after them, either with housing or appropriate counselling and support or whatever for the horrific things you must be a party too in a war.

corner of hells · 23-04-2016 07:25PM

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Aye thats a good idea, I'll look into it.

I've heard of how often ex servicemen become homeless (I'm from the UK) and its shocking it is. The government doesn't look after them, either with housing or appropriate counselling and support or whatever for the horrific things you must be a party too in a war.

I work in homeless services and know a good few ex soldiers who are homeless now and a few former military work with me too.

Lot of Eastern European homeless former soldiers in Ireland .

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5 · 23-04-2016 08:07PM

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Aye thats a good idea, I'll look into it.

I've heard of how often ex servicemen become homeless (I'm from the UK) and its shocking it is. The government doesn't look after them, either with housing or appropriate counselling and support or whatever for the horrific things you must be a party too in a war.

If all the suicides and deaths from addiction of ex-servicemen in recent wars were counted among the casualties people would be shocked. Twenty odd US veterans kill themselves every day.

On topic, know one guy who was homeless for a while as a teenager. Bad situation at home, he was from a rough part of Waterford city and decided to just get the bus down to Galway because he preferred sleeping rough there to staying put. He's an event planner now, nice fellow.

MilesMorales1 · 23-04-2016 08:22PM

Allie Green Turf wrote: »

If all the suicides and deaths from addiction of ex-servicemen in recent wars were counted among the casualties people would be shocked. Twenty odd US veterans kill themselves every day.

On topic, know one guy who was homeless for a while as a teenager. Bad situation at home, he was from a rough part of Waterford city and decided to just get the bus down to Galway because he preferred sleeping rough there to staying put. He's an event planner now, nice fellow.

Makes you sad it does. People put their lives on the line for their countries, and their repayment is to be forgotten about and abandoned, specially if the conflict they were involved in was unpopular.

catbear · 23-04-2016 08:31PM

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Makes you sad it does. People put their lives on the line for their countries, and their repayment is to be forgotten about and abandoned, specially if the conflict they were involved in was unpopular.

What's sadder is that laying your life on the line for your country might be the only route out the ghettos that your country allows to happen.

line console zero · 23-04-2016 08:34PM

wokingvoter wrote: »

I don't know anyone who's homeless through no fault of their own.

I do. The right circumstances and the lack of a family/friend support network and a few unfortunate events are all it takes.

LoonyLovegood · 23-04-2016 08:37PM

400 people in my college didn't have accomodation by November, most were couch surfing to try stay in college and find a place. I was doing that for about a month last summer, couldn't find a room for love nor money, so rotated between three friends places so that I could keep my job. It's the worst feeling in the world, leaving bags of belongings behind you in a place.

catbear · 23-04-2016 08:47PM

I've seen a different type of homelessness too. There is a man in Thurles who sleeps rough but he'd lost his wife and kids in a house fire and since then won't sleep indoors. He washes his face at a fountain on the square. I think some nuns give him his dinner everyday.

MilesMorales1 · 23-04-2016 08:47PM

catbear wrote: »

What's sadder is that laying your life on the line for your country might be the only route out the ghettos that your country allows to happen.

Aye thats true as well.

Gremlinertia · 23-04-2016 08:55PM

Looking at the poll, i'm kind of surprised how many people don't know someone who is homeless.. Am i alone in this?.

Jawgap · 23-04-2016 09:20PM

I do a small bit of advocacy work that brings me into contact with families and people who are homeless and at risk of homelessness. The one abiding (and scary) thought I'm always left with is that we are all just one or two bad decisions away from being in that situation.

mvt · 23-04-2016 09:53PM

Jawgap wrote: »

I do a small bit of advocacy work that brings me into contact with families and people who are homeless and at risk of homelessness. The one abiding (and scary) thought I'm always left with is that we are all just one or two bad decisions away from being in that situation.

Sorry,don't believe this.
Whatever about single people if you've made the decision to have children you have roughly nine months to get from one or two bad decisions from being homeless.

MilesMorales1 · 23-04-2016 09:57PM

mvt wrote: »

Sorry,don't believe this.
Whatever about single people if you've made the decision to have children you have roughly nine months to get from one or two bad decisions from being homeless.

What? All it takes is a couple of bad months and low cash to get from being in a perfectly stable situation to being out on the street, regardless of if you have kids or not.

24-04-2016 12:41AM

I know a chap who is currently in a SVP emergency accomodation type set up but he's struggling to hold onto that.

He'd be late 20s, he used to live with his mother, grandmother & brother. His brother is a useless scumbag who is now a junkie, probably homeless too actually now that I think about it.

His mother passed away years ago, drink related iirc. Other relatives in an effort to protect his grandmother (her purse essentially) have made her house off limits to him.

The chap himself used to have a decent enough job but let it slip away as he was repeatedly late for work, than did security for a while but again had problems with attendance, punctuality etc etc. He has a bit of a gambling problem too which doesn't help.

Last time I spoke to him, about 6 weeks ago he mentioned he was going to try and get help with his gambling which might sort him out longterm.

Between the gambling, the few cans of an evening, the timekeeping and lack of support network he's not in a great place at all. Very nice, polite chap though.

I'd have a great deal of sympathy for him as I'm not a morning person so having to be at work at 8am or 8.30am or whatever wouldn't suit me either so I can certainly relate to how he lost his initial job.

melissak · 24-04-2016 01:00AM

pragmatic1 wrote: »

esforum wrote: »

Apparantly Dublin has a bad name because its a well established fact that its the Dublin homeless travelling around dishing out what I assume is hash. Potent hash it would seem

At least thats what I think he is saying.

Oh and everyone hates Romanians because of Romas. I give him credit for knowing the word Roma

I think he's on about the synthetic cannabis, which is apparently popular amongst homeless folk. Horrible stuff.

Add your reply here.
What is synthetic cannabis. Like from the head shops

Chain Smoker · 24-04-2016 01:17AM

Earlier this year I was stuck between accommodation for 2 months with nowhere to put my things. It wasn't anything close to being homeless, I just couldn't commit to a 12 month lease and the superbowl in the area had totally consumed the short term accommodation market.
So I was crashing in 12 bed hostel dorms on a week by week basis, moving me and all my stuff from one hostel to another every weekend. It was one of the most soul crushing experiences of my life. Most of the hostels here don't really have common areas and you can't hang around in a dorm all day so I was just wandering about trying to kill my evenings.

I forget exactly what my point was, but living somewhere (i.e. not travelling) and not having a base is a hellish experience. Pretty sure I'd completely lose my mind within weeks if I was homeless.

Marissa Obedient Muzzle wrote: »

This is the attitude that has left a lot of Irish people (men mostly) living terrible lives in London in particular, I don't get it at all. Nobody thinks those who come back are a failure, in fact family are glad when people come back.

Being homeless or living in a dive just not to move home is insanity imo.

I dunno, I was back home at christmas and there were a few relatives, under the assumption I was back for good, who were more than happy to tell me that I had "learned my lesson" with a tone of glee. There's definitely a type who loves to brand anything they possibly can as a failure, you're better off just cutting them off but sometimes you can't.

That being said, pride is fierce stupid reason to become homeless and I'm sure it happens a lot

Digital Society · 24-04-2016 01:19AM

"Im not moving out of Dublin...."

melissak · 24-04-2016 01:25AM

Digital Society wrote: »

"Im not moving out of Dublin...."

Add your reply here.
But why should they move out of dublin? to make way for foreign apple workers etc? This is where they are from. Their support network is in Dublin. If you have to live on 188 euro per week you need someone who will help out occasionally. where will they go? Will they have cake?

Sweetemotion · 24-04-2016 01:43AM

A lot of people saying, it's drug and alcohol problems causing people to be homeless and they bring it on themselves. Workingvoter saying on the first page he doesn't know anybody who is homeless who didn't end up homeless through no fault of their own...

Most people I know homeless wasn't through drugs, alcohol or their own fault, but simply because their mother met a new man.

24-04-2016 02:42AM

Not anymore. But back when I indulged DIY more than any other part of my life I built a house on my land. A house I still own. I learned a lot to build it - from masonry to plumbing and through wiring. But in the end I had a little granny flat purely of my own building that functioned well without killing anyone.

At the latter end of that time I became a user of the ukchatterbox chat service and the controversial chat service that came before it. And during that time I met a young girl who had been orphaned at a late teen age where she had a little brother and they had somehow landed in a middle land between not only been let down for any access for grants for education - but also for accommodation and parenting and anything else you could imagine.

And around when I met her she was homeless essentially. The two of them moving between two or three places (there was some law or rule about how long they could stay in one place without some action being taken that would ultimately lead to them being separated). But she was working two jobs to keep them in money to keep them out of a few systems that would have taken notice.

So I stuck her in the spare house, and it worked out really well. It freed up her income in a few ways. It gave him a place to study and make a make on the CAO. And since they left me he has done relatively very well in GMIT - and she earned herself into a position where she has set herself on relatively late "mature" education where she is eligible for grants again. And she has her sights now set on uni place.

But they brought as much to my life as I think I brought to theirs too. It was humbling to watch them work their way up. Especially on the days when I came home from work thinking I had had a bad day - and seeing their dedication to getting their foot up the ladder of life - even with the help I had given them - made me realise I do not really have troubles in life at all. Not many of us here _really_ do.

The house is currently empty. The wood floors are of a kind of wood that needs constant use so I walk in and over it often - but I hope to find a way to fill it that will live up to those who walked those floors before.

pragmatic1 · 24-04-2016 04:58AM

melissak wrote: »

Add your reply here.
What is synthetic cannabis. Like from the head shops

Yep.

Jawgap · 24-04-2016 06:33AM

mvt wrote: »

Sorry,don't believe this.
Whatever about single people if you've made the decision to have children you have roughly nine months to get from one or two bad decisions from being homeless.

Well, that's your prerogative not to believe, but really seem to have no experience of life if you think everyone who has a kid has that kid as a rational choice. Many do, many are also subject to the subtle and not-so-subtle pressure on the environment they grew up in; some lack the emotional maturity to appreciate the consequences.

One of the sorriest cases I helped out with involved a fairly promising GAA player who broke his leg as a young lad and essentially 'fell out' of his support structure and got caught up in first taking then dealing in prescription meds.

zef · 24-04-2016 07:04AM

I have a close friend who is currently in a womens refuge after leaving an emotionally, financially and eventually physically abusive relationship. He cut her off from her family and friends, put her down until her confidence was in ribbons, and violently assaulted her so she left with just her clothes and handbag.
This lady is very anxious but when we rang the Womens Refuge hotline she was told she would be kept safe, with a Dr. that visits on site, activities to do in the day, and therapy on tap as she was pretty shell shocked. I hadn't seen her in a long time as he'd 'confiscated' her phone.
However, the homeless crisis has had knock-on effects to women moving out of refuge, and as a result my friend has received none of the above care that we had initially told would be available to her. All women she has spoken to are moved to a different refuge after 2 weeks, and seem to just move from shelter to shelter or are told to find a B&B independently if they do not have their children with them. She has seen people using hard drugs, has had items stolen and says some of the women are very violent themselves. To me it sounds more like the typical homeless hostel or even the Dochas centre from some of the stories. Obviously I am preserving her/ the refuges anonymity and not going into any great detail but the stories she told me are truly shocking. e.g. - women saying they've been raped/beaten to get a bed out of the 'homeless system' as the 'refuge system' is believed to be better.

corner of hells · 24-04-2016 02:05PM

zef wrote: »

I have a close friend who is currently in a womens refuge after leaving an emotionally, financially and eventually physically abusive relationship. He cut her off from her family and friends, put her down until her confidence was in ribbons, and violently assaulted her so she left with just her clothes and handbag.
This lady is very anxious but when we rang the Womens Refuge hotline she was told she would be kept safe, with a Dr. that visits on site, activities to do in the day, and therapy on tap as she was pretty shell shocked. I hadn't seen her in a long time as he'd 'confiscated' her phone.
However, the homeless crisis has had knock-on effects to women moving out of refuge, and as a result my friend has received none of the above care that we had initially told would be available to her. All women she has spoken to are moved to a different refuge after 2 weeks, and seem to just move from shelter to shelter or are told to find a B&B independently if they do not have their children with them. She has seen people using hard drugs, has had items stolen and says some of the women are very violent themselves. To me it sounds more like the typical homeless hostel or even the Dochas centre from some of the stories. Obviously I am preserving her/ the refuges anonymity and not going into any great detail but the stories she told me are truly shocking. e.g. - women saying they've been raped/beaten to get a bed out of the 'homeless system' as the 'refuge system' is believed to be better.

I work in a hostel and its unusual to see a woman turn up like that , I wonder has she any kind of keyworker or advocate working with her , has she looked into legal assistance .
What your talking about is a low threshold accommodation with associated drug use , violence etc. and unless she is used to that envoironment shes going to struggle .

There isnt a lot of hostels just for women but there are rufuges some quite good too.

Is she registered as homeless with an assessment done ?

Do you know anyone who's homeless?

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