Initiative launched on child poverty
The Irish Times - 2001
© 2001 ireland.com
Kitty Holland
Thousands of homeless children denied an education, say charities
Thousands of children are being denied their constitutional right because
the State fails to provide them with a home environment that enables them
to fully participate in school, a campaign being launched tomorrow will
say.
The Open Your Eyes To Child Poverty initiative is an interagency campaign
aimed at raising public awareness of child poverty and hopes to highlight
the difficulties encountered by the children of homeless parents living
in temporary accommodation.
The unstable home life experienced by children living in B & B's,
hostels or other emergency accommodation denies them full access to education,
says Focus Ireland, one of the charities in the initiative.
Mr Declan Jones, chief executive of Focus Ireland, said temporary accommodation
was a totally inadequate backdrop for any child as they prepared to return
to school. He will call for the immediate development of a plan to provide
quality emergency and transitional accommodation for families with children.
The number of homeless families has increased dramatically in the past
17 years. In Dublin in 1983 there were 39 women with 93 children in emergency
accommodation. That figure had risen to 540 families with 990 children
in emergency accommodation last year, 430 of which were headed by lone
parents. Focus Ireland's services co-ordinator, Ms Orla Barry, says children
in these living conditions are experiencing an acute form of educational
disadvantage. "They are expected to prepare for a new school term
with no proper home to return to each day." She points to the often
cramped conditions and absence of any privacy for such children to "do
the basic things like study, read, think and do their homework".
Figures from last year's ESRI Counted In report indicate that there were
796 homeless households of more than one person throughout the State on
March 31st, 1999. That figure is likely to have increased since then,
says Mr Damien Drumm, housing officer with Dublin Corporation.
The corporation, like other local authorities, awards extra "points"
to families on the housing waiting list but says the number of people
seeking local authority housing has increased while the number of local
authority-owned houses or flats becoming available has decreased over
the past three years.
In 1997 there were 1,032 "casual vacancies", that is, a tenant
for whatever reason gives their house or flat back to the local authority.
There were only 707 last year. Mr Drumm attributes this in part to the
fact that fewer corporation tenants are buying their own homes and are
remaining in the public rented sector.
Focus Ireland is one of the eight charities in the Open Your Eyes To
Child Poverty initiative, with Barnardos; the Combat Poverty Agency; Children’s
Rights Alliance; the National Youth Council of Ireland; Pavée Point;
People With Disabilities in Ireland; and the Society of St Vincent de
Paul also taking part.
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