A homeless charity has called on activists and supporters to march through Belfast on Saturday to protest a sharp rise in the number of people dying on the streets of the Northern Ireland capital.
Mayor Tina Black, caucus leaders and law enforcement agencies met Friday to discuss the crisis, which has left about 14 people dead in recent months. Approximately nine were found dead in the street, the rest in homeless shelters.
Campaigners said the spiraling cost of living had coincided with a public health emergency, leaving more vulnerable people homeless.
The march will pass through the Cathedral Quarter, the site of the most recent deaths, and end with a rally outside the town hall, which is facing a clamor to prevent further tragedies.
The latest deaths are a 19-year-old woman, who has not yet been named, and Jade Gorman, 23, who lived on the street but was found in a flat. A drug overdose was suspected. In two weeks in June, six homeless men died of overdoses.
“I’ve worked with the homeless for 10 years and I’ve never seen this amount of suffering and tragedy,” said Paul McCusker, a city councilor and founder of The People’s Kitchen, the charity organizing the march. “In one hour last Sunday, we dealt with three overdoses and one cut; four people slumped over the bins. It’s only an hour into Belfast city center on a Sunday night.’
McCusker, of the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP), said Belfast was not providing enough accommodation, addiction services and mental health treatment to deal with the large increase in the number of young homeless people. Many mixed heroin and other opiates with other drugs, he said. “Most of the people we work with are on a cocktail of medications, which puts them at greater risk.” The cost of living has a “huge” impact on homelessness, McCusker added.
The Unite union called on its members and other unions to join the march to put pressure on Northern Ireland’s Stormont assembly – which is currently closed – and government agencies to do more. “This charge is an indictment of Stormont,” said Susan Fitzgerald, Unite’s regional co-ordinating officer.
Fitzgerald pointed to the delay in opening a replacement shelter for the women-only Regina Coeli Hostel, which closed in March. “It is sickening that in our society so many people are cruelly tormented by poverty, addiction and abuse and then simply left to fend for themselves with little or no support,” she said.
Sign up for First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
Drug-related deaths in Northern Ireland have risen from 92 a decade ago to 218 in 2020, the highest number on record, according to a government report published in March. Just over half of the deaths were men aged 25-44. Mortality is highest among people aged 25-34.
The slums of Belfast city center offer addicts a way to hide their drug use from families and communities, said Ian Cameron, outreach manager at Extern, a social justice charity. “Heroin use is highly stigmatized here. People may have been ostracized from their own community or worried about being identified. So it’s almost safer to use it in the city center than in their area.”
Interventions by ambulance crews and a small group of specially trained police officers prevent many overdoses from becoming fatal, he said.
Extern called on politicians to open an overdose prevention facility – a designated place for people to take drugs under the supervision of trained staff who provide drug treatment, mental health services, wound care and blood tests. There are about 200 facilities in the US, Canada and about a dozen European countries, but none in the UK.
Add Comment