Tents given by a homeless charity are being removed by the council

The housing crisis is continuing to prompt an unprecedented level of rough-sleeping locally, with 30 tents being removed by council staff from public areas in the Athlone Moate Municipal District last year.

Homelessness charity the Midlands Simon Community provides tents and sleeping bags to people who are left with no option but to sleep rough, however these tents are subsequently being removed by council staff because the erection of tents in public areas is an offence under local bye-laws.

This apparent conflict between the work of the homelessness charity and the work of the local authority was described as a "sensitive" matter by Jackie Finney, the manager of the Athlone Moate Municipal District, during a recent meeting.

"It is sensitive, it's difficult, and there are a couple of different things at play," said Ms Finney. "Homelessness agencies are doing their job. In fairness to our community wardens, any litter that is left (from tents) is removed."

Ms Finney responding to a question from Cllr John Dolan who had asked how many tents had been removed in the district in the district last year, and was told that "approximately 30" tents had been cleared from public areas.

The CEO of the Midlands Simon Community, Tony O'Riordan, told the Westmeath Independent that it was seeing, on average, around 30 individuals sleeping rough, in each quarter of the year, across the counties of Westmeath, Longford, Offaly and Laois.

Mr O'Riordan said the charity had not been encountering resistance from local authorities to the practice of giving tents and sleeping bags to rough sleepers, and he pointed out that councils were kept informed of rough sleepers locally on an ongoing basis.

"Every night that our people are going out, and they meet someone (sleeping rough), before they finish their work at night they send an email to the local authority informing them that they've met someone sleeping out.

"We would find that the local authority are very supportive and very facilitative. We wouldn't have heard of any resistance, really," he said.

He said Midlands Simon gave out more than 180 tents and sleeping bags to people across the region last year.

"That is a reflection of the need and the demand. We don't want to be doing that, but when you are meeting people and they have no option on that particular night but to sleep out, you have to have some response to what they're dealing with.

"We give out food, clothes and coats as well, based on the donations that we receive," he said.

Mr O'Riordan said there was an argument being made by some commentators which suggested that giving out tents and sleeping bags makes people more likely to sleep rough, but he rejected this premise.

"We have never met anyone that would rather sleep out than stay in either emergency accommodation or a home of their own. We've never come across that."

Rough sleeping has been continuing in some areas over the winter months, but Mr O'Riordan praised the work of councils in sourcing emergency accommodation for people.

"Over Christmas, in particular, the cooperation from the local authorities was very impressive. They recognised the need that was there, and there was a huge effort over Christmas not to have anyone sleeping out.

"That helped us to get people into emergency accommodation, and they need to be commended on that."

Overall, he said the issue of people sleeping rough was still a relatively new phenomenon in the region, one which has only emerged in the last four to five years.

"The reality is that we're now dealing with an issue in the Midlands that wasn't there five years ago.

"We are trying to increase capacity and build up capacity. (Handing out tents and sleeping bags) is one service is that we would like to see discontinued."