Homeless protest wins reprieve for Cedar House,.

Keep Cedar House Open! Save the Homeless Services at DCC from Paula Geraghty on Vimeo.

Over 30 people came out to protest outside Dublin City Council to keep Cedar House, a service for homeless people in Dublin open.

Motion to Dublin City Council meeting 1st March 2010 (which was subsequently passed) by a whopping great big majority:

This Council condemns the proposed closure of Cedar House Homeless Hostel in accordance with the strategy of the Homeless Agency, “Pathway to Home”. We demand that this unit remains fully open and continues the provision of services to homeless people in our city until such time as alternative and adequate housing alternatives are put in place. An essential 20 bed dormitory is due for closure by 30th March 2010 and no adequate alternative has yet been identified and communicated. 30 individual rooms and all other services are due for cessation by 30th September 2010.

Proposed: Cllr Brid Smith, People Before Profit Alliance

Find the campaign on FaceBook
facebook.com/pages/save-the-homeless-services/290883897234
Contact them at savehomelessservices@gmail.com.

Background

This is the text of a letter the campaign circulated ahead of the Council meeting:

Michael Finneran, Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, The Custom House, Dublin 1. Tel 018882591 Fax 018786676 Email: minister@environ.ie

Cathal Morgan, Director Homeless Agency, Parkgate Hall, 6-9 Conyham Road, Dublin 8, Tel 01 7036100 FAX 01 7036170 Email: homeless@dublincity.ie

Dear Mr Finneran and Mr Morgan,

I am writing with concerns regarding provision of emergency accommodation and services to the homeless community in Dublin.

The Homeless Agency say that taking 50 beds out of the equation currently provided by Cedar House can be met by other service providers at other locations throughout the city. How have you worked this out when these beds are used nightly? On Monday 22nd February 35 people arrived at Cedar House where only 20 beds were available.

The Pathway to Home strategy also means that key services offered by the HSE via the Homeless Persons Unit are being “redeployed”. Some of these services will be privatized while other tasks will fall to Dublin City Council – specifically placement services. Where in DCC have you got trained and qualified staff with over 20+ years of experience in placing homeless men, women and children? What processes and procedures are documented and in place at DCC? How can you expect someone to engage with the DCC for support to find homeless accommodation when in many cases DCC will have evicted the person in the first instance? Isn’t this a huge conflict of interest?

At present there is no clear indication as to how services will continue to be provided after “reconfiguration”. In the example of the HPU – by whom and how? In the example of Cedar House – from when, by whom and how? Can you clarify this?

The Government and homeless agency has the very laudable goal of no person spending more than six months in emergency accommodation. Yet in contradiction of this, at present there is a six month waiting list for long term accommodation. It seems within the grand narrative of Government policy you see no future for the continuance of state support for established homeless shelters in Dublin. It equally appears that the current experienced staff that work in these shelters and their clientele do not have a voice in your new arrangements.

Another concern is regarding Rent Allowance. Under the existing rule a person must be registered and using homeless accommodation for 6 months in the previous year to qualify for this. How will this be addressed if there is a shortage of emergency accommodation? Will the ruling (in effect since 27th July 09) be reversed to facilitate the Pathway to Home strategy? How can people move to independent living if they don’t even qualify for rent allowance?

Do you really believe that people will engage with essential counseling and support services, as they currently do, once the Homeless Persons Unit becomes merely a payment and information function? Do you have any evidence to support the logic of decentralizing services from the HPU which is currently a “one-stop-shop” and how do you justify the privatization of services such as in-reach and out-reach work?

When Cedar House's beds are put out of use (20 beds 31st March and 30 more beds 30th September) can you GUARANTEE that the accommodation provided for a person who could have then stayed in Cedar House will be of equal or better quality? Can you guarantee that a person requiring support (e.g. an intravenous drug user) will not have to stay in an unsupported environment? Can you guarantee that the service level provided to a person with mental ill-health, for example, will be of an appropriate standard?

What tangible evidence can you provide that this strategy can be successfully implemented? Your current strategy identifies 2,144 homeless households requiring accommodation – what about all those who became homeless since March 2008 and who will become homeless in the future? What about individuals who do not fit your linear approach and never make it to transitional accommodation or can’t sustain themselves there? Can you guarantee that when these people break your rules they will still have a place to stay and will not at any time in the future find themselves outside the gambit of the services for continued breach of rules?

It would be a great injustice to some of the most disadvantaged people in society, as well as a failure of care, were existing services to be closed or ended without adequate forethought or provision for their continuing care. I would therefore urge you to reconsider this short sighted decision to close Cedar House and reconfigure the HPU.

Having plans in place is a lot different from having services in place.

I eagerly await your response,
Yours Faithfully,

________________________
Concerned Citizen