"the highly competitive world of the homelessness charities!"

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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A quote from Brenda Power in the Sunday Times

www.thetimes.co.uk

Saint-like campaigner Father Peter McVerry has feet of clay after all

“Living saint accuses politicians of lying”, was how one government source summarised the extraordinary spat between Father Peter McVerry, the campaigner for the homeless, and the taoiseach Leo Varadkar
www.thetimes.co.uk www.thetimes.co.uk

the highly competitive realm of homelessness charities. There is no exact figure on the number of such charities in Ireland, but in 2018 there were about 75, which cost the taxpayer €116 million that year.

Interesting statistic.

I am not sure that it's fair to say that the charities cost us €116m. Homelessness cost us €116m and a lot more.

Brendan
 
There must be a cost to all these overlapping charities in terms of inefficiencies.

And I think they push a narrative about homelessness which is inimical to proper tackling of the situation, instead it is always crisis mode going back as far as I can recall to the 1990s. I think when you have a situation - not just homelessness - where the charities say the situation is getting worse and worse even as they get more and more donations, need to take a step back and ask if that approach is making things worse in the long term.
 
75 homelessness charities, 75 CEO's with 75 salaries, 75 cost structures, 75 large pots of donations that no one really has full eyes on, 75 colleagues setting up go fund me pages looking for other people to pay for their bucket list trip to Nepal that they could easily afford to pay for themselves.

It's not just homelessness, every disease, problem and emotion you can ever think of has a charity, paid adcovates, ceo, staff, fundraising costs, office etc. It's an industry in itself with lots of vested interests and snouts in the trough, so much waste and so much cost. I don't need reminding that some charities do help some people, but its an industry in need of some serious rationalisation and scrutiny. Personally, I feel like I may as well throw my money down the nearest drain as give it to a charity, so I don't.
 
Is €116m such a huge amount in the greater scheme of things? Such a sum might build only a few hundred homes and many of these charities do provide some housing and also deal with cases outside the norm such as people with other issues (addictions, psychiatric problems etc.) who are unlikely to be moving into a regular townhouse or suburban home and managing to be a good/stable neighbour any time soon?
 
ClubMan said:
Is €116m such a huge amount in the greater scheme of things? Such a sum might build only a few hundred homes and many of these charities do provide some housing and also deal with cases outside the norm such as people with other issues (addictions, psychiatric problems etc.) who are unlikely to be moving into a regular townhouse or suburban home and managing to be a good/stable neighbour any time soon?
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It's not €116m though. Add it all up in terms of central government, local government and donations.

There's no need for 75, if they have a role to play, needs serious rationalisation and clarity on scope and clear boundaries on being funded by government to deliver services and lobbying government for more funding from charitable donations.
 
odyssey06 said:
It's not €116m though. Add it all up in terms of central government, local government and donations.

There's no need for 75, if they have a role to play, needs serious rationalisation and clarity on scope and clear boundaries on being funded by government to deliver services and lobbying government for more funding from charitable donations.
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Th same can be said, and then some, for the HSE and every aspect of how the State delivers services. There is more than enough money at the moment for the State to deliver every service we need. The State (the government, public service and civil service) choose to waste it instead. And it is a choice.
 
ClubMan said:
Is €116m such a huge amount in the greater scheme of things? Such a sum might build only a few hundred homes and many of these charities do provide some housing and also deal with cases outside the norm such as people with other issues (addictions, psychiatric problems etc.) who are unlikely to be moving into a regular townhouse or suburban home and managing to be a good/stable neighbour any time soon?
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Agreed.

Some of the charities provide not just a house but also assisted living. This is important as it reduces the societal cost of their otherwise chaotic lives.

I tried to find out whether there is a master list of households looking for social housing across the LAs and the various housing bodies and whether unique household identifiers are used.

Apparently, none exists. The Housing Agency has pulled together data for all LAs but not for other housing bodies.

It is possible that households might use a scatter gun approach to obtain housing and apply to more than one LA and/or approved housing body.
 
But the question is whether the €33m provided good value.

I suspect that it could be better value but I suspect that it would cost the local authorities a lot more to provide that level of services.

€33m seems to be a viable size. The problem would be having a plethora of €1m sized charities where the CEOs are paid €200k.

Brendan
 
ClubMan said:
But we're talking about the €116m figure here, no?
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I thought we were discussing the 'highly competitive world of homelessness charities', and their number and cost. The cost is not limited to citizens as taxpayers from central government funds unless we're civil servants concerned with that remit.
 
Leper said:
I nearly had another heart attack reading this. He (Fr McVerry is one of my heroes).
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I don't like the way he runs his hostels or the way in which they engage (or don't engage) with the police.
I've had some experience in that area.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Would we say the same about discussion forums?

No need for boards.ie, , politics.ie, reddit, askaboutmoney and hundreds of others.

why not have just one?

Brendan
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I guess the risk is one person controlling discourse. Think twitter . At best a benevolent dictator .
 
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