17% more homeless in one-year period

THE number of people presenting as homeless in Clare increased by 17% in 2009, a greater increase than in any other part of the Mid-West.

At this week’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, a report on the Mid-West Homeless Framework Plan for the next three years was presented. It showed that on 482 occasions, people presented as homeless in Clare in 2008 but this increased to 565 last year.
At the meeting, councillors expressed concerns about having a regional strategy, with fears that homeless people from Limerick City (where 940 presented as homeless last year) could be farmed out to Clare.
Limerick City is to be the lead local authority in the homeless plan and some councillors said they were concerned about the decision to take a regional response to homelessness.
A total of 940 presented as homeless in Limerick City last year and 424 in County Limerick. Mayor of Ennis Frankie Neylon said that he was worried Ennis would be asked to take some of Limerick’s burden.
“My greatest fear would be that because it is regionalised, would it be decided that it’s easier to plant half of them in Clare rather than to leave them in Limerick?”
Councillor Neylon said that some years ago, there had been promises of millions of euro to “solve the problem of the Travellers” and he was cynical about the proposals to tackle homelessness. “It’s all a paper exercise,” he claimed.
He said that if there was a serious attempt to tackle homelessness it would have to be welcomed.
Councillor Johnny Flynn said that it seemed that homeless people from Limerick had already been shipped out to Clare. “The opening of a homeless shelter in Ennis was crucial but the impression was that a lot of the initial residents were from Limerick.”
He said that certain people who had been relocated to Ennis from Limerick under the Regeneration Programme and had brought problems with them. He said that some of them had been involved in “fairly loutish behaviour that has had an impact on the image of the town”.
Councillor Flynn said that he was very concerned about young people who were homeless and the elderly.
Bernadette Kinsella, of Clare County Council’s housing section, said that an analysis of people who are homeless in Limerick could show that several had roots in County Clare. “The traffic might be going two ways,” she commented.
She said that Limerick City Council had been designated as the lead agency by the minister and it was likely that it was chosen because it is the largest urban centre in the region and urban areas are typically where homelessness is concentrated.