Eilish had been homeless since her early teens due to the breakdown in her relationship with her mother who was diagnosed with a mental illness.

Ann is 15 years old, and lived in emergency accommodation in Aylward Green with her mother and younger siblings for a period of two years.  Ann is the eldest in her family and her mother and father are separated.  Ann and her siblings have a very close attachment to both parents and see their father on a regular basis. Both of Ann’s parents are on a methadone maintenance programme. 

Madeleine was originally from Blanchardstown and is the eldest of four children.  Her father worked locally and her mother took a part-time job when Madeleine was 13. Her father was violent towards her mother throughout their marriage and while he used to shout at the children, he was never violent towards them.  Madeleine first experienced homelessness when her mother left the family home and went to the UK to work for a few months.

Padraig was referred into Caretakers before turning 18.  During the previous year, Padraig’s drug use had become increasingly chaotic and problematic. Despite a great deal of support and help from his family and friends his behaviour became unmanageable. Eventually, his mother had to ask him to leave the family home. For a time he stayed with other family members. He also stayed with some friends. But ultimately, Padraig ended up homeless.

Sheila from Dublin was a previous resident at Focus Ireland’s Chéad Chéim service, which provides supported accommodation for young people who have left care to help them make the journey to independent life.

Sheila was homeless for a while when she had to leave state care once she reached her 18th birthday but told how linking in with Focus Ireland helped her to “turn her life around. “

“I am staying clean and I am going to do my best in life from now on. I’ll tell you now that I wouldn’t be here today without Focus Ireland.”

Jack lived at home until the age of 26.  When his elderly parents became very sick they were forced to remortgage their home to pay for urgent medical treatment.

Simon was referred to the PETE programme in July 2010 with the objective of providing him with an essential structure to his day whilst living at the YMCA. At that time Simon had not been engaging in any form of meaningful activity and was at-risk of falling into antisocial behaviour such as drug use due to his living environment and social network.