Homeless people choosing to sleep in subzero conditions rather than enter emergency accommodation

Homeless people in Dublin would rather take their chance of freezing to death sleeping on the streets than enter emergency accommodation.

Before -7C temperatures were expected last night the Irish Mirror hit the capital and spoke to several rough sleepers.

While there were noticeably fewer people on the streets, many said they choose to sleep in subzero conditions rather than stay in services for homeless people.

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The main reason they choose to put their life on the line by sleeping in the freezing cold is due to fights breaking out in the rooms and drug use by their roommates.

Margaret Maughan, who says she’s been living on the streets for “many years”, said: “I 100% prefer being on the streets than the hostels. I stay up in Jervis in the doorway.

“In the hostels, eight people are in a room and they are all fighting. In a hostel you are just looking at four walls, I’d rather be on the street with my friends.”

The Dubliner said the bitter temperatures over the past few days have been “very bad”. She added: “My finger went numb last night, all of the rest of them were red and one of them was blue.”

A homeless person begging on a street in Dun Laoghaire during Level 5 Covid-19 lockdown. On Monday, 25 January, 2021, in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto)

One man sleeping on the streets of Dublin south of the Liffey, who wished not to be named, said prison was better than the emergency accommodation he had experienced.

Natalie Ryan, who sleeps on Henry St, said it’s not possible to get sleep at night in these freezing conditions.

However, she said she would rather be “be with my mate wrapping my arms around her” than staying in a hostel.

She added: “It is way too cold, there should be more help for people out on the street. We need proper blankets, I am frozen.”

Peter Murphy says he avoids soup kitchens at certain times of the day and hostels because it could lead him down a dark path once again.

The Dublin man was addicted to heroin and crack cocaine but is now on the road to recovery as he takes methadone.

Standing on O’Connell Bridge before the worst of the cold hit last night, he said: “I first went homeless about two and a half years ago.

“There are people threatening you in the hostels, they would say you have to give them €70 a week to not go near you, and people are giving it.

“We don’t go down to the food places in the morning because first thing you have all the people selling drugs, that’s when they do all their bagging.

“So I avoid it because if you see them they’ll say ‘carry that over there for me’ and you don’t want to say no because they’ll see you sleeping on your own and you’ll get a boot.”

Mr Murphy said there is one hostel in particular that he avoids as there are “drugs everywhere”. He also avoids accommodation that is close to a needle exchange service, as he says it's too tempting.

He added: “There’s a help centre and right beside it there’s a place for giving out needles, how is that helping you? If you see your mate doing it you’re gonna kick in. It’s the same as seeing your mate but you’re off the drink and they say 'Ah haven’t seen you in a while come on for a pint'.

“If people are trying to get clean and it’s there in your face, what I reckon is it should be in a different place.”

Homeless people in Dublin

Mr Murphy said the past week has been bitterly cold, and it’s been causing him issues as he has a chronic lung condition.

He said: “With the cold in the night time I don’t know how anyone is getting sleep, we are getting foil blankets. So we put a tent into a tent but with the condensation when I wake up in the morning because I have COPD I’m coughing up phlegm for 45 minutes”.

Senior Manager of Emergency Accommodation at Dublin Simon Niamh Brennan said there are rough sleepers who resist staying in hostels.

However, she said there has been an increase in uptake due to the extremely cold weather.

She added: “We are delighted that people are willing to come in especially as the night temperatures dip quite a bit.”

Ms Brennan is asking the public to download the Dublin Rough Sleepers App so those on the street can be offered help.

Explaining the app, she said: “You pinpoint a location on a map and that gets sent to our outreach team.

“In October of last year, we received 241 alerts and from the 1st of January to the 7th of January the team received 265 alerts.

“It is quite a high figure but we are delighted because it allows us to have more information of where people are bedded down.

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