Some rough sleepers are avoiding homeless services because they fear it could cause them to relapse into drinking, Alice Leahy has said. 

In October, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive counted 145 individuals sleeping rough in the capital city. 

According to Alice Leahy of the Alice Leahy Trust, there are a variety of reasons why they decline to make use of the supports available to them. 

“Even in the storm recently, they didn't move in,” she told The Pat Kenny Show on Christmas Eve. 

“But one man this morning, I was chatting with them. 

“He was Irish and he was going around with his carrier bag.

“And he said, ‘I will go to the RDS, but I'll just have the food. I don't want to stay.’

“And he's five months off the drink on Christmas Day and so he was going off with his carrier bag, wheelie bag and going off.”

The tent of a homeless person living on the streets of Dublin City. Picture by: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie.

Ms Leahy started working back with the homeless in the 1970s. 

Back then, there was an expectation that one day the issues would be “solved”. 

Now, with property prices surging and homeless at record levels, things are worse than ever. 

Back when she started in the 70s, she thought “we’d have homelessness solved” at some point. 

Ahead of Christmas, she arrived at work and, quite typically, found there were people from all over the world waiting for her in need of help. 

“We had people from 13 different countries - they were from Latvia, Lithuania, Sudan, Romania, Albania, Ukraine, Brazil, Poland, Russia and Ireland - and four of them were Irish,” she recalled. 

“But the one thing they all had in common was they were sleeping out.”

Tents on Henry Street in Dublin. Picture by: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.

For those who do make use of the Alice Leahy Trust’s services over Christmas, Ms Leahy said she and her staff always try and keep things “very simple”. 

“We have nice, simple decorations,” she said. 

“We have the carols in the background and we feel it is very important for the people coming in that this isn't kind of showtime. 

“This is another day and we keep it normal.”

Main image: A person sleeping rough in Dublin. Picture by: Sam Boal/Rolling News.ie