While Cork, Dublin and Galway are full of new apartment blocks for yuppies there are thousands of families, especially lone parents, living in squalor waiting for decent housing. Homelessness is not just about people sleeping rough on the streets. It is also about people living in overcrowded flats and houses, living temporarily with friends and relatives but having no place of their own, people threatened with eviction and people living in hostels and institutions because they have no where else to live. Homelessness is an issue for gays and lesbians who can be thrown out of home when they declare their sexual orientation. It is also an issues for women and children who are being abused in their homes.
Homeless people are especially vulnerable to physical attacks, exploitation and abuse of all kinds.
Their health suffers badly. Many of the long term homeless in this country are mentally ill and have been discharged from institutions to the non-existent 'community' of the streets. There is no solution except a major increase in affordable, good quality public housing, accessible to everyone who needs it. The fact that it is not available results in the growing number of homeless people in this country, many of whom are young, some in their teens. It is an issue which should be taken up by the trade union movement.