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Pinch Me: A Look At A Child's Life In Homelessness For Profit
By Susanne Delaney
Long ago corrupt politicians in Ireland created a business model out of homelessness. Thus vulnerable humans were needed to feed it. Hence the lack of incentive to fix the "housing crisis."
Thousands per month is paid for one family (in one room) to a private providers. Rented apartments cost less. Better still the council could buy the properties. Which would be overall more economical.
But wealth is being created from forging childhood in a baptism of fire. Many will be left burdened with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is not good for them OR our failing society, and there will be no salve provided for the pain. Most people know how difficult it is to access mental health supports.
The "social contract" has been not so much broken as obliterated. Decisively. Deliberately. Disgustingly.
For any child in this type of situation, ascending Maslow's Hierarchy of needs is impossible. You are always on the bottom rungs of the ladder. Stuck in "survive, not thrive" mode.
How can you have a normal childhood when you cannot sit down for home-cooked nutritional meals? Or when you are denied the right to traverse the already difficult passage of puberty with actual privacy? How must it affect your sense of emerging tenuous autonomy to have that sense of being in control taken from you before you had a chance to embrace it? How must it affect your development to be institutionalised?
CCTV watches you in communal areas. Sign in and out books keep track of your family's whereabouts. Rules are doled out by strangers known as "staff" (as opposed to parents).
Scary shouting and crying of other residents punctuates the tense atmosphere. Nothing feels secure or safe, and an unwarranted but real sense of shame abounds. You have to travel across the city early to get to school, only to navigate how to hide your circumstances.
Some of these children have been born into homelessness. Some of them will never leave it, and the conditions they live in are often hazardous. Good standards eats into profits.
This week it emerged (unsurprisingly) during box-ticking inspections that dangerous mould, damp, pest infestations, smashed windows, broken fire alarm systems and no record of fire safety checks and drills are all par for the course in homeless "shelters".
At a centre housing 232 people (including 63 families and 18 babies) the fire alarm panel was recorded as being permanently in “fault mode".
Dublin City Council has since said there had been an improvement in standards across emergency accommodation, yet provided no evidence of same.
DCC has also now engaged an independent contractor to provide a homeless accommodation inspection service.
Ah right... so more expensive subcontractors who can be convinced to alter findings for a price.
I witnessed this at a council dog pound I worked at - veterinary inspectors would acknowledge the severe issues during inspections, and then write glowing reports.
Moreover, I've experienced first-hand the brown envelope cover-ups at hostels when someone dies on their watch and lies undiscovered for days.
Some Gardaí are more than willing to aggressively intervene when you seek CCTV and other important evidence to piece together the last movements of a loved one.
Casual transactions hide a myriad... and so too does pinching.
I once watched a documentary in which one child would pinch herself hard to cope with the intense stress regarding her family's homelessness.
Kelly Louise said it would take her focus off the urge to cry. I had only ever previously heard about people pinching themselves because they feel lucky. I never forgot her story.
We cannot fix the lives of these children, however we can be a voice for them and expose the evil truth behind a ruthless industry. That's why I wrote this piece today and I would ask you kindly to please share it far and wide.
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Occupants escape injury as shots fired at house
belfastlive.co.uk/news/north…
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Andrew and Tristan , having this fkn clown as your legal rep you are both well n truly fkd
@McBrideLawNYC
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@catturd2 @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse big big big success haaahaaa this kinda proves that it's truth eh Donald
CBS: The Iranians are saying they're gonna have access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund. True or false?
JD VANCE: That's the sort of things they could have access to so long as they honor their end of the obligation
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#belfast #standtogether im sickecked to see cathholics posts out the shankil butchers (over 50 years ago) . Finally we can unite but seems alot don't like that . As a catholic I offer my hand to shake the hand of a prodestant , only together we can make it 🇮🇪🇬🇧
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#belfast #belfaststabbing I can bet my life on it that if I carried out this attack lastnite as a white Irish man on an immigrant I would be named n had my photo splashed over every news paper n news channel today .
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