In Dublin, homeless individuals would prefer sleep on the streets and risk freezing to death than go into emergency housing, reports The Mirror.
The Irish Mirror visited the city yesterday night and met with a number of homeless people before -7C temperatures were predicted.
Even though there were notably fewer homeless persons, several claimed they would prefer sleep in freezing temperatures than remain in homeless services, reports The Mirror.
Their housemates’ drug usage and arguments in the rooms are the major reasons they decide to risk their lives by sleeping in the bitter weather.
Margaret Maughan, who says she’s been living on the streets for “many years”, said: “I 100% prefer being on the streets than the hostels. I stay up in Jervis in the doorway. In the hostels, eight people are in a room and they are all fighting. In a hostel you are just looking at four walls, I’d rather be on the street with my friends,” reports The Mirror.
The severe temperatures over the previous four days have been “very bad,” according to the Dubliner. “My finger went numb last night; the rest of them were all red, and one was blue,” she said.
An unnamed man who was sleeping on the streets of Dublin south of the Liffey claimed that prison was preferable to the makeshift shelter he had been in, reports The Mirror.
It’s impossible to sleep at night in these frigid temperatures, according to Natalie Ryan, who lives on Henry Street.
But instead of sleeping in a hostel, she stated that she would rather to “be with my mate wrapping my arms around her.”
She added: “It is way too cold, there should be more help for people out on the street. We need proper blankets, I am frozen,” reports The Mirror.
According to Peter Murphy, he stays away from hostels and soup kitchens at specific hours of the day since they can mislead him once more.
The Dublin man is currently taking methadone to help him recover from his heroin and crack cocaine addiction, reports The Mirror.
Standing on O’Connell Bridge before the worst of the cold hit last night, he said: “I first went homeless about two and a half years ago,” reports The Mirror.
“There are people threatening you in the hostels, they would say you have to give them €70 a week to not go near you, and people are giving it. We don’t go down to the food places in the morning because first thing you have all the people selling drugs, that’s when they do all their bagging. So I avoid it because if you see them they’ll say ‘carry that over there for me’ and you don’t want to say no because they’ll see you sleeping on your own and you’ll get a boot,” reports The Mirror.
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