RESIDENTIAL CARE CENTRES TO BE SET UP TO HOUSE YOUNG DRUG USERS

Less than half of young homeless people use emergency accommodation
services provided by the State, a new report shows.

It recommends setting up residential care centres for young drug
abusers as part of radical changes in services for homeless young people.

The report of the Forum on Youth Homelessness, published yesterday,
aims to improve and develop services for young homeless people in the
Eastern Regional Health Authority area. It wants one authority to have
statutory responsibility for the delivery of services to young people.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority has already responded to the
report by providing pounds 1.5 million to implement its
recommendations in relation to its services.

Included is the creation of six local residential centres each costing
pounds 380,00 a year to run.

A database that will track the progress of young people throughout the
system has also been commissioned.

Director of planning and commissioning, Pat McLoughlin, said Focus
Ireland was being provided with pounds 357,000 to provide a new centre
for young people out of home who are actively abusing drugs.

Founder and president of Focus Ireland, St Stanislaus Kennedy said the
centre would be a joint venture between Focus Ireland and the Society
of St Vincent de Paul.

The Department of Health have agreed to fund the centre, that will
cater for between eight and 10 young people, through the authority.

Sr Stan said it was hoped the centre would be a model of good practise
that could be used elsewhere. At the moment there is no place for
young homeless drug abusers.

"The whole idea behind it is to help young people to enter treatment
programmes. If you are out in the streets you have not got a hope in
the world of getting into treatment," she said.

Commenting on the report itself, Sr Stan thought it was a good
beginning but was, at the end of the day, just a good beginning. "I
think the problem is exceedingly serious now.

"Our child care system and the care of homeless children is being led
by the courts rather than led by need and good planning."

Meanwhile, measures to tackle homelessness go before the Cabinet today
as 14 men continue their sit-in protest against the closure of an
emergency hostel in Dublin.

Focus Ireland say the men's action demonstrates the need for less talk
and more action to combat the growing problem of homelessness.

The men began their protest when the hostel in Temple Bar closed on
Sunday night. They were given just two day's notice of its closure.

Focus Ireland maintain the measures to be put before the cabinet are
still only proposals and the crisis is not being dealt with
effectively day-to-day at ground level.

Measures to be put before the cabinet today are believed to include
the establishment of a new forum in each county in the State to deal
with homelessness and a full-time director for services for homeless
people.

Focus Ireland believe the homeless men staging the peaceful protest
outside the emergency hostel in Eustace Street have no realistic
chance of gaining alternative accommodation.

The privately owned emergency hostel was contracted by Dublin
Corporation to provide accommodation on a night to night basis for up
to 40 men over 18 years of age.

The men were only notified on Friday that the hostel would be closing
on Sunday night and were advised to either seek accommodation with
friends and family or contact the Eastern Regional Health Authority's
homeless service.

Chief executive of Focus Ireland, Declan Jones, said some of the men
are drug users who would end up sleeping rough on the streets.