Peter McVerry began his priestly ministry in the inner city of Dublin in 1974. At this time he came into contact with young people who were sleeping on the streets because of the inadequacy of their home situation.
In 1979 he opened a hostel for homeless boys, aged 12-16, from the inner city. He is still a member of the Board of Management of this hostel. It is now fully funded by the Health Board. It was as a result of his experiences with boys leaving this hostel at 16 or 17 years of age and having nowhere to go, except back to the streets, that Peter McVerry set about providing services and accommodation for this older age group.
Since early 1990s, the Health Boards have been given statutory responsibility for the under 18 age group which means that services have improved and, while still far from perfect, most homeless young people in this age group are reasonably well catered for. However a shortage of appropriate accommodation and services for the over 18s, who have no legal right to any accommodation, has created a crisis for this age group, who if they are not helped and supported at an early stage, become much more difficult to help. It is the 18-25 age group that is now the primary focus of Peter’s time and attention.
In 2005, Peter’s operations were re-named The Peter McVerry Trust. The Trust now provides two hostels for the under 18 age group, three hostels for the over 18 age group, one drug detox house and two aftercare houses. Each house or hostel caters for 6 or 7 people at a time. The Trust also provides twenty apartments to those seeking to return to a normal lifestyle, while still receiving support from The Trust.
Open Access Centre:
The Open Access Centre is based at 26, Upper Sherrard St., Dublin 1. It began as an administrative office for Fr. Peter McVerry SJ and it remains so today. However, young homeless people began to call to see him there and so it developed into a small, informal drop-in centre, where young homeless people who have nothing to do during the day could come to relax, meet others, make cups of tea, have a sandwich at lunch-time, use the telephone, wash their clothes or use it as a left luggage facility – while Fr. McVerry continues to work unaffected by the chaos around him!
There are no criteria for admission, everyone is welcome. It is open Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5pm approximately but opening hours are sometimes dependent on Fr. McVerry’s availability.
Peter McVerry Trust:
The Peter McVerry Trust is seeking to provide the highest possible quality care for young homeless people living in the hostels.
“It is our policy to provide a warm, caring, safe and supportive environment for the young people living there. We try to provide stability for young people so that they can attempt to deal in a positive way with emotional or behavioural problems, which they might experience. We try to encourage and help the young people living there to develop or maintain positive relationships with their family, where appropriate. We attempt to equip the boys for independent living during their stay. We support and help them to find employment, training courses or schooling, as appropriate to each one’s needs. Ultimately, our objective is to help young people to take control of their own lives and not remain as victims of forces, internal or external, beyond their control.
We seek to provide an atmosphere in which young people not only receive support and encouragement from staff but also offer such support and encouragement to each other.
Our philosophy is based on current child-care thinking, namely:
to work with small numbers of young people in family-sized residential units rather
than larger, more institutional buildings.
to keep young people close to their communities as far as possible so that they can
retain whatever support structures already exist in their lives and more easily relate to
their families.
In order to facilitate strong relationships between staff and young people, we are
committed to using full-time staff as far as possible, occasionally using volunteers
where they have a specific contribution to make.”
