Two men who were rough sleeping died on the State’s streets on Wednesday night, one in Dublin and one in Drogheda, Co Louth.
A man in his 20s, who was found unconscious on Drogheda’s Mill Lane at about 10pm, later died in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital.
In Dublin a man in his late 30s was found dead on Adair Lane in Temple Bar at about 2am on Thursday. Gardaí said the man had not yet been identified but that his death was not believed to be suspicious.
The man was “habitual to the area” said Anthony Flynn of Dublin Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) and had been seen by an ICHH support team at about 12.30am.
“Then at about (2am on Thursday) an off duty member was in the area and noticed he hadn’t moved for four or five hours,” said Mr Flynn. The gardaí were then called.
Mr Flynn said there was “an extremely high level of rough sleepers in Dublin alone over the past few weeks, with 160 (on Wednesday) night and 133 the night before.” But, he said, “there is no system in place to take them off the streets. The staff and the facilities are there, but there is no co-ordination.”
There were similar stories of a rise in rough sleepers from Cork, he said, and elsewhere in Ireland, “and then there’s another death in Drogheda”.
In a statement, the Dublin Simon Community offered deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of the man found in Temple Bar this morning.
Chief executive Sam McGuinness said as the homelessness crisis “has continued to escalate rapidly, our soup run and rough sleeper team, who are out 365 nights of the year, see first hand the difficulties that people on our streets are faced with. People are tired, they are undernourished, their medication may not be used and they are open to other exposures like alcohol or drugs.”
Great efforts were being made by the Dublin Simon Community, the local authorities and other housing bodies to deliver additional emergency beds as the demand increases, said Mr McGuinness.
“However, the ever-rising flow into homelessness means that there is a real challenge to keep up with the demand for beds,” he said.
“As we face into the winter ahead, we are desperately worried about the fate of the people who are sleeping on our streets and deeply hope that another person does not perish in these very tragic and sad circumstances.”
