{"id":391,"date":"2009-09-15T12:11:42","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T12:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.d1086250.cp.blacknight.com\/?p=391"},"modified":"2020-09-26T11:04:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-26T10:04:03","slug":"taking-the-market-out-of-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aliceleahytrust.ie\/2009\/09\/taking-the-market-out-of-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking the Market out of Housing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Delivering Housing Solutions for a New Era<\/p>\n

Irish Council for Social Housing
\nBiennial National Social Housing Conference 2009
\nSheraton Hotel, Athlone, Co. Westmeath<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Good evening everyone. Thank you for your invitation to address your very timely conference. I now know what it is like to be the “warming up” act before The Late Late \u2013 not an easy one as so many of you, including myself have travelled some distance \u2013 geographically and in time.<\/p>\n

Let me tell you a little about the work of TRUST. TRUST was founded in 1975 \u2013 see our website www.trust-ireland.ie for more information. Our work would not be possible without the enormous generosity and support of people from all walks of life, rich and poor, and very poor. We have always said that in an ideal world there would be no need for TRUST \u2013 but of course this is not an ideal world.<\/p>\n

“To be without a home is to be suspect. The homeless are easy targets. Their bodily integrity is constantly at risk. Their lives are an offence against the sacred canons of private property and consumerism. Their privacy is regularly intruded on as part of the price of being statistics in the poverty industry; their painful experiences are reduced to sociological research data. The true test of a civilised community is how people at the margins are treated. Not only must individual liberties be defended, but society should be educated and sensitised towards a broader vision of life and living.” – Dan Sullivan, then President of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, describing what it means to be homeless in Ireland in a piece I asked him to write in 1995 for a book I co-authored with Ann Dempsey “Not Just a Bed for the Night” published by Marino Books in 1995.<\/p>\n

Everyday we meet up to 60 men and women who sleep rough. We meet with people as they present themselves to us \u2013 all outsiders in a city of plenty. Many come from outside the city, some from the remotest parts of rural Ireland, some returning to the land of their birth to be buried in the “old sod” and many from outside the jurisdiction. Recently we see increasing numbers from the EU Accession States and other countries. In July we met people from 20 different countries. Indeed, some people we meet we have grown older with us. We provide a health service, advice and dressings, but more important, human contact. Sometimes our place looks like a casualty department, as many people we work with will not go to A&E, and if they do go they will not wait, which obviously poses huge problems for hospital staff.<\/p>\n

As part of a holistic service we provide bath and shower facilities. We have lobbied Dublin City Council to provide public shower facilities. Ironically, the best-known public baths in Ireland were sold by Dublin City Council and now house a very expensive gym, which is located just across the road from where we are based.<\/p>\n

We seek to treat people as people recognising that they need help and have rights, especially the right to privacy and a right to be heard.<\/p>\n

Hospitality is important. We provide tea and coffee, as we would welcome visitors to our own home and, most importantly, provide a listening ear. We also receive daily phone calls from prison from people we know, with no one else to call. Many people we meet have no family contact, and often family members contact us about loved ones who have disappeared.<\/p>\n

The people we meet are perceived by the wider society as being different and difficult; and indeed many are difficult. They suffer from the effects of isolation, neglect and health problems, exacerbated by what are often described as chaotic lifestyles. Accessing mainstream services \u2013 particularly basic accommodation is a major problem. We meet increasing numbers of people who were \u2018re-settled\u2019 in totally unsuitable accommodation, and then find themselves homeless again, an experience that often makes them feel like even greater failures. Just two weeks ago John, a man we know for years, who had been settled slept rough again. That is not unusual for him, as he has lived in five different flats over the years.<\/p>\n

People present to us with a wide range of medical problems including bodies that are ravaged by disease and violence. Some have pressure sores from sleeping out in all weathers, sometimes in urine soaked clothes for weeks; infected and untreated minor skin conditions and major skin problems e.g. leg ulcers and gangrene; as well as lice infected heads and scabies. In addition we often meet people who are suffering from malnutrition and all of the medical conditions common to the general public but exacerbated by their living conditions. We are now coming across conditions long disappeared since the advent of good food e.g. trench foot and impetigo (wild fire). These are conditions clearly associated with extreme poverty and many of the people who suffer in this way are our new neighbours from Eastern Europe, who like our own Irish who emigrated in the past. In addition we witness the consequences of racism, a new and worrying phenomenon in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Some people we meet cope with very serious addiction problems, including drugs, alcohol and gambling. They suffer from despair and the pain of loneliness. They are pushed from service to service, often unable to get relief for minds at breaking point. Often the only “solution” they are offered is a brown envelope of medication, and which some are unable to read the directions.<\/p>\n

These people are just seen just as statistics in our increasingly bureaucratic world.<\/p>\n

Many people we meet struggle to create a sense of normality after years locked away in institutions and others who have been relocated from one institution to another. Some people who are locked in prisons they have created for themselves, often out of the frustration of not being understood or ignored. Many people we know have attempted suicide, and many have died on the streets. Increasingly, young people who are homeless are dying on the streets, and one never hears about it as families are ashamed because their loved ones ended up that way.<\/p>\n

We meet some people who are so cut off from everything around them that they at times appear to be beyond reach. Others however challenge and inspire us every day to look at the way we all live our lives.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the only hearing the people we meet ever get is when they are being researched \u2013 an issue we have grave reservations about because of the amount and quality of research being undertaken today. In that context nothing has changed in the last thirty years as a quote from a report I jointly authored in 1976, I could just as easily publish today as well: “If we are to push for fundamental change in the whole area of homelessness, then a certain amount of constructive research is necessary. We feel strongly however that it must be pursued with the greatest caution. It is clear to us that the \u2018research industry\u2019 uses that section of our society, which is the most vulnerable and the least able to battle for its rights as its\u2019 source of material. We must never forget that we are working with human beings, who for the most part have been battered by our society and who for so long have been pushed about as just another number in a cold inhuman bureaucracy”.<\/p>\n

We must be acutely aware of the injustices in society and be prepared to discuss them and stop intimidating those who are courageous enough to speak out by our silence. Prophetic voices have been dramatically silenced in recent times. Mary Robinson, former President of our country, said in 2001 “Each time you speak out with a critical voice you pay a price”. Voluntary bodies now are often afraid to speak out in case scarce funding is cut.<\/p>\n

A Christmas morning a few years ago I happened to catch Eurovision Mass from Circus Pinter Top in Paris. Apart from the charm and artistry of Parisians I was struck by a few quotes from the Pastor:<\/p>\n

“Encounters with people move us”<\/p>\n

“It is the blind application of the law which makes us inhuman”<\/p>\n

This sometimes can happen when too much emphasis placed on buildings, finance and particularly ticking boxes in highly bureaucratic forms which has now become the norm. A definition of a statistic I like is attributed to Laing and goes something like this – “a drunken man leaning against a lamppost for support rather than illumination”<\/p>\n

The privatisation of State Services is now endemic. Just last week The Irish Examiner revealed in a headline:<\/p>\n

New out of hours service for children ‘shambolic’<\/p>\n

The story highlighted the concerns of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors about a private company Five Rivers Ireland, employed by the HSE to provide an out of hours service for children. They stated “we have a situation where a private company is, in effect, directing and ordering a state organisation, the Gardai. We have responsibility for the children and they are telling us what to do. It’s a ludicrous situation”. In December the same paper noted “the HSE decided to contract out the emergency service to the private sector. Five Rivers Ireland, a branch of UK Five Rivers, won the contract. The cost of the contract, which runs for a year has been kept secret and both the HSE and the Office for the Minister for Children refused to provide details”. A report from the Irish Medical Times last May said “the HSE received six offers for the contract, ranging from \u20ac236,000 and \u20ac1.22m.”<\/p>\n

I started working with people who are homeless in1973 at a time when we had just joined the E.U. I have worked in the slums and witnessed the grinding poverty, exclusion and stigma experienced by the people living there, and today meet the children, now adults, of many of those people.<\/p>\n

We in TRUST have worked with homeless people right through the years of the Celtic Tiger people who have not benefitted from the wealth that was generated. I was surprised to see the headlines recently highlighting people who were destitute as if it was a new phenomenon. Since1975 we have worked with such people, and many obviously find it shocking now as they thought it was a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

Social Housing was not a term in vogue then, like so many other terms now associated with poverty, I don\u2019t particularly like the term. Somehow it reinforces difference, and in difficult times, \u2018differences\u2019 can be reinforced. However it is a widely accepted term where housing allocation is linked to social need and subsidised by the State. Social Housing has now become a much used and abused word. It is now clearly associated with mis-management, social problems and ghettoisation and if we allow this to continue we are complicit in demonising or excluding many citizens.<\/p>\n

The Irish Council for Social Housing was formed in1982, and seeks to encourage and assist the development of a range of social housing services which compliments the role of the Local Housing Authorities. The ICSH seeks to meet the different and changing needs of various groups of people, including older people; people who are homeless; people with disabilities and families on low income. You also provide a range of services, including education and advice on management \u2013 these two areas I will refer back to later.<\/p>\n

Looking at your objectives I am struck by how similar they are to what has clearly become a business type model to be followed to access funding etc. This can be appreciated in the latest Invitation to Tender from Dublin City Council on behalf of Fingal County Council, South Dublin City Council, Dun-Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and in collaboration with the Homeless Agency (21st August2009) which seeks \u2013 and I quote a – “Multi-Provider Framework Agreement for the Provision of Housing Support Services(s)”<\/p>\n

I have no problem with well thought out plans to alleviate poverty, save money and create a greater awareness of the needs for good quality housing and services. I do however have a very serious concern around how inadequate the debate has been around the complexities and multi-dimensionalities of homelessness, particularly the misconception that housing alone will solve the problem. Homelessness is a universal phenomenon and a challenge to all of us. Real debate has never taken place around what is happening and many are excluded from participation. The fact that this Invitation to Tender document is confidential is of serious concern.<\/p>\n

Soft words like “client” or “customer” which can so easily distance us from people needing help, and lull us into a false sense of security that people are being cared for to the best of society\u2019s ability. These terms also give the impression that the person who is homeless has the same rights as a consumer which is not the case. The language of consumerism used in accessing funding like \u2018performance indicators\u2019 pressurises services to work only with people likely to be successful \u2013 further alienating the homeless person most in need \u2013 and service providers can be equally lulled into a sense of achievement. As a society we need to be more aware of how we use language, to understand its power and to take into account its effect on people who are vulnerable. A management culture environment with its emphasis on quantitative yardsticks defined in terms of “benchmarks” and” performance indicators” can loose sight of the complexity of the human condition. A new word I have noticed in the Tender is \u2018bundle\u2019 \u2013 a word which reminds me of that cruel word \u2018bed blocker\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Homeless Agency was established in 2001, following on from the former Homeless Initiative of which TRUST was a member. TRUST is not part of The Partnership and feels an independent voice is crucial based on our experience. The Partnership includes statutory members from the four Dublin local authorities, Health Service Executive, FAS, CDVEC, Prison Service, Probation Service and the representatives of the Homeless Voluntary Network which comprises a range of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Homeless Support Services for four years from 2005 to 2008 inclusive amounted to \u20ac65,769,454. The total expenditure was \u20ac230,099,770 for the same period and homeless accommodation accounted for approximately 70% of the total expenditure, with the remaining 30% for support services \u2013 and which just covers the Dublin area.<\/p>\n

TRUST made a submission to the Data Commissioner on25th July 2007 regarding our concerns about the collection, storage and sharing of personal information on LINKS, a computerised system. Even though our complaint was upheld by the Data Commissioner, our concerns remain, and we will be raising them again formally having seen the Tender Document. This is because what is called the Holistic Needs Assessment form is such a huge component of the planned administration of the Homeless Support Services programme being put out to tender.<\/p>\n

The following questions were raised in our submission of July 2007:<\/p>\n