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From: Spiro Agnew
Posted: 6 October 2008
Homeless shelters moving to Portrane
Irish Times Monday 06 Oct

CARL O'BRIEN, Social Affairs Correspondent

HEALTH AUTHORITIES are planning to close two emergency shelters for homeless boys in Dublin city centre and relocate them to the grounds of a psychiatric hospital.

The Health Service Authority has confirmed that the two residential centres it operates in the city for homeless boys aged 12 to 18 will be closed shortly.

It says they do not meet the national standards for childcare facilities and that it has been advised by the Social Services Inspectorate to find alternative accommodation.

The HSE says it is planning to open more modern accommodation on the grounds of St Ita's Psychiatric Hospital in Portrane, about 15 miles from the city centre.

However, children's rights campaigners have reacted angrily to the move and say it is likely to result in homeless children ending up on the streets of the capital.

Fr Peter McVerry, who runs a service for homeless boys and young men, said: "I find it absolutely unbelievable that anyone concerned with the care of homeless children would even consider locating a hostel in the grounds of a psychiatric hospital.

"It is totally inappropriate."

He added: "The already low self-image of homeless children will be further dented by this association, and I suspect that many homeless children will refuse to go there and will end up sleeping on the streets because of its location and distance from the city centre."

This was rejected by a spokesman for the HSE who said the move would not leave homeless children on the streets of Dublin city.

"This is in line with the HSE's aim of not having all homeless services centralised in the city centre, as the young people using these services come from the various city suburbs."

The two emergency shelters in the city provide accommodation for about 20 homeless boys.

Emergency beds for homeless children are intended to be used for a maximum of three months in order to allow social workers find longer-term accommodation.

However, some childcare workers say children occasionally stay much longer due to a lack of suitable accommodation.

Parkview provides emergency and short term accommodation for young homeless teenagers aged 15-17. Many of these children have come from broken homes or have a history of State care. All referrals come from the HSE's out-of-hours service.

St Jude's is aimed at children aged 12 to 15 and also provides emergency beds for children referred through the HSE's out-of-hours service.

Inspection reports from the Social Services Inspectorate for Parkview in recent years show that officials were impressed with the "professional and non-judgemental approach" to working with young people.

They said young people were generally listened to and treated with respect and fairness and that Parkview had succeeded in engaging well with young people on a short-term basis.

However, inspectors were highly critical of the quality of accommodation and said the building needed considerable redecoration and maintenance work.

They said there were holes in carpets, walls and ceilings; plaster had come away from walls; bare wires were protruding from some sockets, although testing revealed that none of these were live.

Notwithstanding this, the reports have pointed out that the centres were well situated, close to the city centre, and had good access to shops, banks, main bus routes and a city hospital.
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From: Haircut
Posted: 6 October 2008
Homeless shelters moving to Portrane
Christ!!! We'll have to rename the Portrane Road, Social Servives Avenue at this stage!!!!
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From: BeachBoy
Posted: 7 October 2008
Homeless shelters moving to Portrane
Well it looks as if they will have plenty of room in St.Ita's for the kids.. I hear hospital units in both mental health services and learning disability services are been closed due to cutbacks by H.S.E money wasters!!
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From: BeachBoy
Posted: 7 October 2008
Homeless shelters moving to Portrane
More to the point Pat Dunne and Professor Brendan Drumm, as I said wasters.. The only thing they know to do is cutbacks to hurt those who can't defend themselves and waste money on employing more office staff and spending it on fancy new offices like the one they have in the Swords business campus... Maybe the kids can move in there!!
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From: Lola
Posted: 7 October 2008
Homeless shelters moving to Portrane
As usual we (Portrane) are a dumping ground for the HSE and the Department of Social and Family Affairs. Don't get me wrong I?m not opposed to the move out of facilities here on the whole (being a HSE employee) if needs be for anyone in need, be it Grannaig Nua, or the Methadone clinic at the time etc, but it always seems to be out here, no matter what!!!

I never hear tell of Malahide or Skerries being bantered about?
Why is that? It is not like these poor people that need these services are going to be helped or cured better upon spending time with the sea air or Pipers chipper or a few hours down The Brook. Its back to the days of the origination of St Ita?s,( which to me is a great hospital) ?the out of sight out of mind? theory!!

As for units in the hospital closing units , I know there is a ?phase out policy? but I heard of a unit that closed over night this the weekend, the distress and confusion it would of caused them poor residents of who would have been elderly long stay residents is a shame and a disgrace .
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From: redser
Posted: 8 October 2008
Homeless shelters moving to Portrane
Lola - we are talking about the sprawling grounds of an existing HSE site. Why not there than anywhere else? Forgive my ignorance but do Malahide or Skerries have comparable sites?
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From: Spiro Agnew
Posted: 8 October 2008
Homeless shelters moving to Portrane

I just wonder why they feel Portrane is the best place to site a shelter for at-risk teenagers.

What are they supposed to do in their free time?

I don't know many teenagers who enjoy long walks on the beach every day.

Clearly it is as the previous poster said.. out of sight , out of mind.

To hell or to Portrane.



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From: ec
Posted: 8 October 2008
Homeless shelters moving to Portrane
>> I never hear tell of Malahide or Skerries being bantered about?

Not necessarily true. Fingal is building 37 units of sheltered housing in Malahide as part of a St. Vincent De Paul project.

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