'Having my own place would be like having my own mansion, but this tent is a mansion for me tonight'

When 73-year-old Tom Hand called to the offices of the Meath Chronicle on Thursday last, he said he wanted to share his story about homelessness and his wish to find somewhere he could call home in his native Navan. He opened a window on a world and a situation few of us could ever imagine. Despite the darkness there was more than a glimpse of light and hope too...

Thursday 27th July

The traffic roaring past on the Navan Kells road drowns out Tom's voice as he points out where he's going to bed down for the night. We're in a thicket of trees with a floor of ivy and vines beneath us and just yards in off the busy R147. The setting sun pierces through the foliage, splashing leaves with golden colour. The light flickers off Tom's face as he proudly shows us his tent, a small, basic pop-up type, tethered between two trees.

Tom Hand is 73-years-of-age, he's lived in Navan all his life. When we meet him he tells us he's been sleeping rough for the last 10 nights, this is the first of those nights he's had a tent to sleep in, he says, supplied to him by local councillor, Alan Lawes.

Tom's story, told in his new-found wooded hideaway, is one of a difficult life punctuated by loss, addiction and fragility. The addiction issues are behind him now, he says, his only priority is getting to a place of safety and shelter and somewhere he can call home.

How Tom quite came to find himself living in a wafer thin tent beneath a canopy of tree branches is somewhat unusual, but one thing is certain, it's not sustainable. He doesn't know if his body can take much more living on open ground.

Alan has brought him some hot food and some bedding, for which Tom is extremely grateful. He says he had been sleeping in undergrowth on the outskirts of Navan, being bitten by insects. He's in poor shape, a lesion under his eye is in the early stages of being treated as skin cancer while his hands are visibly swollen and sore from arthritis.

In the mornings, he goes to the water tap at Navan fire station where he washes himself and there are, he says, good people around the town who help him out with food and water.

"My story is, I'm very grateful to Alan who came tonight and gave me a bed, a tent and some nice food to eat, perhaps only for him I'd be dead tonight. I just want a place I can call a home, somewhere I can be left until God calls me."

Born in Trim in 1950, Tom's beloved mother, Katie died in 1987, an event that devastated him and sent him off on a spiral of grief that contributed to a decades long drink problem. His father, Christopher passed away some years later. His siblings are also deceased.

"I have no one with me here in Navan now bar a few relatives and friends and people who know me.

"I know I suffered with addiction, I was drinking for a long time...," his voice trails off, "but let he without sin throw the first stone. I think everyone in this world commits sin."

When I ask about who the young Tom Hand was, a mischievous grin flashes across his face.

"We lived in Claremont Estate in Navan. I never went to school, never learned how to read or write. I worked with a couple of farmers, a bit of labouring, doing the spuds, a bit of security work.

"I used to go out to the pub with my friends or go to a dance and maybe have two or three pints and home to bed, and up the next morning for work or a football match, that was me, never mixed in bad company.

"I loved football. I played central midfield for the Travellers team. We won the league, the first Travellers team to win the league and I was proud of myself. I also used to play football with Trim before one of the Brothers in Trim showed me how to play Gaelic football.

"I started to have a problem with drink around the age of 30, I suppose I put it before everything else in life, though I tried to keep it from my Mam and Dad. My mother died when she was 69 and it broke my heart, my father was nearer to 80 when he passed." He reaches inside his jumper and pulls out a miraculous medal and kisses it. "I go to the chapel every day and say a few prayers."

It was after his mother's death in 1987 that Tom says he lost his way and he eventually ended up on the streets of Navan and sometimes Dublin.

"When I lost them, I lost the world. It's a big thing when you lose all your family. I lost my sister, Angela at 47 years of age to cancer. Then I lost my brother, Christopher some years later. It's very hard not to have someone put your arms around you with a big hug and tell you they love you."

Tom never married or had children..."No one would ever replace my mother and father," he says, "especially Mam, I was her pet."

"In recent times, a relative took me in but she has children, I was on the sofa but I couldn't stay there, it wasn't fair on them. I've other relatives who looked out for me too, gave me a bit of dinner and that sort of thing, I love them all very dearly."

Alan vows to check in on Tom over the weekend, his decision not to take the offer of emergency accommodation means he's little choice but to spend these next few nights in a tent in the hope of something turns up locally.

Meath Co Council is aware of his urgent need for accommodation and has offered him a bed in the only place available to them, the Drogheda Homeless Aid shelter.

"I won't go to Drogheda, I don't feel safe over there and I know no one. I'd be walking the streets not knowing anyone."

Tom's plight highlights the chronic shortage of suitable emergency accommodation in Navan and Meath generally. There is no weekend outreach service, except for the work of Cllr Alan Lawes and some local volunteers who will often respond to provide those on the streets with some hot food and drinks and any other essential items they can get their hands on, but it's sticking plaster stuff.

The issue of homelessness in Co Meath was raised at last month's monthly council meeting by Cllr Lawes when he said that 16 more people, including seven children, had been added to the list of people without homes between June and July.

Nationally, the number of homeless people hit a record 12,600 people in June, an increase of 1.3 per cent compared to May, while the quarterly report by the Department of Housing, showed a 19 per cent increase in the amount of homeless people since this time last year.

The problem is huge, the cases often complex, the solutions never quick. Meanwhile, Tom beds down for another night holding his miraculous medal, praying for something better.

"I just want a roof over my head, to go walking and go to football matches, that's all.

"Having my own place would be like having my own mansion, but looking at this tent, that is a mansion for me tonight."

Friday 28th July

On Friday, with both Cllr Lawes and Cllr Emer Toibin making frantic efforts to help find a solution with the council's housing staff, another emergency bed, this time in Bettystown is found. Tom again, declines this offer, preferring to stay in Navan for fear of being "forgotten" in a place where he knows no one.

Tom's decisions leave him out in the cold, literally. He is desperately hoping a place can be found for him in Navan. He is due to meet with council officials next week but for now is now prepared to sleep beneath the stars until that happens.

Saturday 29th July.

I get a call on Saturday afternoon from Alan Lawes who has spoken to Tom. The accommodation provider in Bettystown has phoned Tom directly having been contacted by a council housing officer concerned about Tom's situation. Tom has changed his mind and accepted the invitation and agrees to go to the coastal village. Alan has driven him over. He'll sleep in a warm, safe bed tonight.