The homeless crisis in Dublin is deepening, with government promises failing to match needs on the streets, according to charity workers in the city.
The body of a homeless man was discovered on Westmoreland Street in the city centre on Sunday morning, leading to renewed calls for action to resolve the growing crisis.
The man who was aged in his 30's - had been sleeping rough in a doorway on Westmoreland Street.
His body was discovered by an activist who had just taken part in a sleep-out to raise awareness of the homelessness crisis after 7 o'clock this morning.
Gardai are awaiting the results of a post-mortem exam to determine the line of their investigations.
Anthony Flynn, Director of Inner City Helping Homeless and Brother Kevin Crowley, director of the Capuchin day centre in Dublin spoke with Newstalk Breakfast this morning about their work in the city, and how the crisis is deepening.
Brother Crowley said this crisis is the worst ever seen, with the Capuchin Day Centre he runs seeing a massive increase in users of its services, with “about 300 people for breakfast and then in the afternoon 550-600 for dinner. That’s a huge increase in the last number of years.”
“Thing have really got worse,” Brother Crowley said, who added that 30 people who last night slept rough had arrived at the centre at 7am this morning.
Anthony Flynn said charity workers in the city are “seeing more and more deaths that are not being reported.”
The stigma around those who are homeless is that addiction is often at the root of the problem, but Flynn says this is not the case these days, with a far broader range of people finding themselves on the streets.
“It’s a different kind of person now is homeless ... the lack of services is the problem,” he said.
The current services that are available are often inadequate, Flynn and Crowley say, with safety in hostels a major issue.
“That is a huge problem,” said Father Crowley.
“There’s not sufficient supervision in the hostel,” he added, leading to fear of theft or assault so that many choose to sleep rough rather than spend the night in a hostel.
Listen to the full interview below
