AN EMERGENCY homeless shelter providing beds for up to 50 people a night faces the threat of closure as part of a major reorganisation of homeless services in Dublin.
Cedar House, which is run by the Salvation Army, began consultations with staff yesterday following the Homeless Agency Partnership’s decision to reallocate funding from emergency projects to long-term homeless projects.
Several other emergency hostels in the Dublin region could also close in coming months as the agency implements its new Pathway to Home strategy. This aims at increasing the number of people who can gain access to long-term housing with supports provided in their own home.
Talks between all the agencies providing services to homeless people – the HSE, Dublin City Council, the Homeless Agency Partnership and a range of charities – are taking place at present.
Cedar House offers 20 men over the age of 18 a bed for the night and access to showers and a hot meal. It also offers a further 30 homeless men second-stage accommodation, whereby they can get a room for a matter of weeks.
Labour TD Joe Costello said the decision to close the hostel was an “appalling and retrograde step”. He said the Government and city council should reverse the decision until alternatives were found.
“There has been no debate or discussion about the closure. Undoubtedly, many of the residents will end up back sleeping on the streets with all that that entails in this atrocious wet and wintry weather,” he said.
The Homeless Agency Partnership confirmed consultations had been initiated with the Salvation Army over the future of Cedar House. It said these were taking place as part of the implementation phase of the Pathway to Home plan. “We are not in a position of just decommissioning homeless services, there is a very clear rationale for change through the implementation of a Pathway to Home model, which will mean a reduction in the number of temporary beds, owing to the fact that national and local government policy is to provide for a significant increase in suitable long-term tenancies,” said an agency spokeswoman.
She said this would encourage those who have found themselves homeless to move more quickly from hostel accommodation to independent living, thus reducing the need for emergency accommodation. However, many homeless people are concerned the new strategy could create a shortage of emergency accommodation.
One User's View:
'This Hostel Is Very Relaxed. The People Are Nice And You Don't Get So Many Headbangers'
EVERY DAY at about 3.30pm a group of homeless men gather at Cedar House, a big brown building opposite Barney’s Amusement arcade in Dublin city centre, to stake their claim to a bed for the night.
“It’s a really nice hostel. I had no money when I arrived here and they let me stay for a few days on credit,” says Christopher Smalley, clutching a small knapsack stuffed with his worldly possessions. “I arrived back from Jamaica were I was working as a chef to the promise of a job. But when I got here there was no work and I spent a few nights sleeping rough before I found this hostel.
“It would be a great shame to close it,” says Smalley, who hopes to return to Jamaica in the next few months to find work.
Mark, who has been staying in the hostel for three weeks, says it is unfair to close the hostel, which is one of the few good clean ones.
“From what I hear from people staying here many of the other homeless hostels in Dublin have syringes on the floor. I’m down to taking a bag of heroin a day from about six bags of heroin. This hostel is helping me” says Mark, who adds that he can’t get enough money together to rent a flat.
Another man in the queue says this is his second spell of homelessness in the past year.
“Last May I lost my job when a hotel and restaurant went belly up. I lost my flat after that and became homeless . . . I got another job temporarily but this has now fallen through. I guess I am a victim of the recession,” he says. This hostel is very relaxed. The people are nice and you don’t get so many headbangers,” he says.
He said it would be very difficult to get homeless people into long-term tenancies unless the social welfare made it easier to register for payments. “They block you at every turn demanding all sorts of forms and certificates,” he says.