This is Dublin 2017

If you're a regular reader of my blog you will know that I talk about "posting for posterity" a lot. It really sums up my attitude to my blog, it's just a hobby and probably the best thing to come out of it is the record it leaves...I do like to think that some day (say in about 150 years) this blog might be read by someone as a record of how an ordinary person lived in the early 21st century.  How cool would that be :-)

Anyway I had a bit of a eureka moment/wake up call just before I fell asleep on Sunday night. Georgian doors etc and posting for posterity is all very well - and it is, I'm not taking away from one of my most recent blog posts, I've wanted to do it for a while, I enjoyed doing it, and I think it is a nice record to have.
But when I was going in to the office at 7am the other day there were 2 people asleep in sleeping bags literally 2 feet away from me as I was going in the office side entrance door on Marlborough Street.
Then at the ESB building on Sunday, that I mentioned in the Georgian door blog, there were a few people sleeping out/sitting there also - actually they had set up a bit of a camp..
On Grafton Street, every single night there's a huge soup kitchen and clothes/blanket bank set up - I've seen it loads of times, there's a huge amount of people attending it :-(
There's also a mobile health clinic that pulls up to St Stephen's Green every night to help people who are living on the streets.

And that's the Dublin right now that needs to be recorded "for posterity". Great Recession or not, don't forget we had years of the Celtic Tiger before that, and this is what we have to show for it, and this is how some (a lot) of our fellow citizens have to live now.  And while there's nothing new there, I do think it's close to the worst it's ever been...or it's certainly not getting better

And another thing that really makes me angry is the hiding / under reporting of the problem by the Government/in the media.  As far as I am aware a count is done once a year or a few times a year of the number of people on the street.  Last year (November I think??) I saw a report in the papers in relation to the numbers.  The count was done on a freezing cold night with the most horrific lashing rain.  On nights like this people are going to do as much as possible to get in to a hostel or room for the night.  The count needs to be done on a really mild night when you will get the most accurate picture of the extent of the problem.

Rant over.  Now to think of something I can actually DO.

Homeless in Dublin - Emergency shelter/Civil Defence hostel

On the news tonight there was a report on a temporary hostel for homeless people being ran currently by the Civil Defence (in the Civil Defence HQ, Wolfe Tone Quay).

Due to the bad weather (cold and rain) and due to the amount of people homeless on the streets of Dublin the Civil Defence have been requested to run an emergency/temporary hostel.

It makes me sad to think of the homeless problem we have, but it was heartening to see the support and set-up by the Civil Defence.  They have a big hall with 20 camp beds. Every tenant for the night gets a towel, soap, shampoo (showers on site) and a sheet, pillow, blanket and sleeping bag.  As the Civil Defence man said "it's not the Ritz, but....."    

But it must be so much better than sleeping on the streets.  They also are provided with soup, sandwich and tea or coffee.

The temporary hostel will probably run for another two weeks over the cold spell.   And after that it is back on to the streets :-(

Edit.
See comments below - scheduled to run until the end of March