Gimme Shelter

Last week I stepped off the bus at Dawson Street and tiptoed over a man asleep against a shop front. His body was contorted in a strange sleeping position and his hand had reached slightly too far out onto the path, causing the moving black shoes around him to give little jumps as they passed. It’s a common sight, it’s a bleak sight and it’s a reality for more than our city would care to mention. According to the Peter McVerry Trust 139 people in Dublin’s city center, were found to be sleeping rough in November of last year. While it also stated that this number of ‘rough sleepers’ only represents 2% of the overall homeless in Ireland. Others have found accommodation, a transient yet temporary solution to a never-ending problem, while those with the least amount of options make camp in doorways and on street corners. It has been said that you can judge a society on how it treats its weakest members, and when I scuttled to the side to avoid the man’s hand I couldn’t really help but feel complicit. Not complicit in causing the situation he finds himself in, but complicit in the cultural non-action which most of us are guilty of. Sadly most of us are guilty of indifference, but it still falls short of those in Dublin who are actively seeking to make life harder for homeless people.

Earlier this year a photo of ‘anti-homelessness’ spikes caused outrage online which eventually led to the constructors the devices to taking it down. The draconian spikes resembled the inside of an iron maiden, (a torture device made famous in the middle ages) and even then it was to intimidate, rather than to actually maim. Thankfully the Internet’s outrage managed to muster enough public disgust to have the spikes removed. Similar ‘anti-homelessness’ devices also appeared in Dublin earlier this year, but they were made short work of by the direct action housing committee ‘An Spréach’ who physically, with chisel and hammer removed the crude designs.

It may have been a small blow to the tide of anti-homeless devices engulfing the city, but there are still small designs all over the city built in order to ward off homeless people from sleeping where they might find shelter. Slanted benches, spiked rails and pebble dashed seats are all designed to discourage people from staying in one spot for two long, “Stop loitering and return to your homes”, they scream. What we should be following is the example laid out by Canadian housing and support group ‘RainCity’ who’s sheltered benches give the very basic human need of for a roof over one’s head. What is so striking about the benches is their understanding of the problems of the system. No one would encourage those without homes to sleep on benches as a permanent solution but ‘RainCity’ at the very minimum is prepared to acknowledge that it exists. The end result is not to placate those sleeping rough but rather to accommodate them. The problem exists, and rather than ignore it RainCity has attempted to alleviate, in a small but effective way the suffering of those forced into doorways and shop fronts.

This evening UCD students of the St. Vincent De Paul society will begin their homelessness week, where the students will sleep under the sheltered promenade of the UCD library in order to raise funds for those same homeless peoples. Even in this act of solidarity the students recognize the need for shelter. As the November rain beats the grey of the old buildings the students will at very least remain dry, and its that same basic comfort that should be afforded to Dublin’s homeless. If our society wants to end the misery of dealing with these stark realities then deterrence is not the answer, accommodation is.