The sister of a homeless man found dead in a tent said he was “let down” and abandoned by the State.
Thomas Boyd was discovered unresponsive as he slept rough on Loftus Lane in Dublin city centre on March 21 last year. His family say they still don’t know how he died and they blasted the Government for the worsening housing crisis.
The dead man’s heartbroken sister Helen Dowling said: “Thomas was let down by the State, he could have been saved. On 21 September he went into a rehab and spent a couple of weeks there.
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“He was off the drink, ready to go, and then he was pushed into a wet hostel, there was alcohol there. He was only 44, he would have been 45 in November, no age. He left behind six children.
“It’s eleven months now since we lost Thomas and it’s just getting worse and worse. There was no need for him to die and there’s no need for so many homeless to have died since.”
Latest homeless figures just released on Friday shows an increase for the seventh consecutive month in January 2023. There are now 11,754 people living in homeless emergency accommodation – the highest number on record. Of these, 3,431 are children, a 48% rise on last year.
Earlier this week Dublin City Council said it expected a “serious pinch point” on availability of accommodation if the eviction ban is lifted at the end of March. There were 95 homeless deaths in the capital last year, according to figures released by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive.
Helen said: “Charities do more for the homeless than the Government. There’s no support for them. They’re given a phone number to ring and if they can’t get through or there’s no bed that’s it, they’re left wandering the streets.
“There are so many homeless who have died. They are sleeping on the streets because they can’t go into the hostels.
“I would love any of them in Government to go and stay in these hostels full of drink and drugs, or even inspect them randomly. I think the whole system is completely wrong, completely broken.
“I’ve no faith in them to sort it out.” Thomas’ inquest has not yet been held and Helen said the family was told they could be waiting up to 23 months to hear how he died.
She said: “It wasn’t an exceptionally cold night. There was a girl staying in the tent with him. She went back to the tent and he was unresponsive.
“He had been laughing and joking that night, we met people who were with him that night who said he was in great spirits. What happened in those couple of hours that my brother was found dead in a tent?
“We asked gardai if there was any foul play and they said no. It’s mind boggling.” Helen features alongside Thomas’ granny Ann and his sister Michelle in a three-part series which starts on Virgin Media One tomorrow at 9pm.
Stories from the Street follows the lives of those behind the homelessness crisis capturing the highs and lows of life and death in the capital. It shows the devastation in the aftermath of Thomas’ death with a vigil held outside Leinster House.
Wesley from Ballyfermot, who slept rough with Thomas for a time, recalls “nightmare times” and “bad, bad days with no food and no nothing”. He added: “We lost a lot of people, an awful lot of people. A good man is gone that shouldn’t be gone, that was a gentleman... salt of the earth.
“This man would give you his last two euro, just a genuine, genuine person. Everybody deserves some bit of respect but Tommo was not treated with respect. That is not respect to let a man die in a tent in a lane in this day and age in Ireland.”
Thomas’s tragic death was the second devastating blow to the Boyd family within the space of a week. His cousin Sandra Boyd, 35, a mother-of-five, was shot dead in Finglas the weekend before he died.
Helen said: “I hope [this documentary] makes them sit up and listen. We heard from nobody, not even key workers he was in touch with, after he died.
"All he wanted was a little place of his own where his kids could come and visit him. We feel abandoned by the State.
“We couldn’t understand why Thomas was staying in a tent. He used to ring to say he was staying in a hostel. After he died we found out he wasn’t staying in a hostel.
“If there were any girls staying on the streets he came out to stay with them and mind them, that was the way he was. He had a hard life, he was let down by the system, but no matter what was going on he’d have a big smile on his face and give you the thumbs up.
“The one person who was always there for us was Thomas, and we’re not getting that phonecall now. It’s such a waste of a life.”
- Stories from the Streets is on Virgin Media One tomorrow, 9pm.
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