Elias Adane, a former child refugee from Eritrea, was left paralysed after a mechanical arm broke through his tent on the banks of the Grand Canal in Dublin three years ago. Adane had been homeless for months, sleeping in the tent and using drugs to cope. Although homeless outreach workers were present when Waterways Ireland began to clear tents from the canal bank, Adane’s tent was not opened and “checked verbally” before a worker operating a vehicle was given the go-ahead to lift it. Adane was left with catastrophic injuries and spent five months in hospital before being placed in a flat in Ballybough, owned and managed by the Peter McVerry Trust under its Housing First programme. However, Adane found it difficult to manage his tenancy, saying that he was visited by drug users who were both good and bad. He also had high, ongoing care needs that were difficult to manage alone.
It was decided that Adane would be better cared for at a Housing First complex in north Co Dublin, where he currently lives, supported by staff on-site 24 hours a day. Despite still taking methadone, Adane would like to get off it and hopes to start a course in computers in the summer. He has a long scar across one side of his face although he says it is not related to the canal incident. He also has a civil case ongoing against Waterways Ireland and Dublin City Council.
Francis Doherty, director of housing with the Peter McVerry Trust, said that Adane’s experiences illustrate how vulnerable people are when sleeping in tents and that the Trust encourages people to come into shelter, at least so that workers can get them on a pathway to housing. Reflecting on his own experience, Adane said that Ireland is a good place if you work and get a job, and that he had made a mistake by taking drugs. Nonetheless, he said that someone should have checked his tent more thoroughly.
