First 31 extra emergency beds for homeless available in Dublin

The first 31 additional beds allocated to address the homeless crisis in Dublin were made available last night to people who have been sleeping on the city’s streets.

The facility was opened by the Peter McVerry Trust and Focus Ireland in a building on John's Lane, off Thomas Street, in the southwest inner city. Nine more beds are expected to be available at this facility shortly. An additional 260 beds are expected to be available to homeless people in the capital by the end of the year.

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly last week said all homeless people sleeping on Dublin's streets would be offered beds by Christmas.

He was speaking after meeting more than 50 delegates involved in the sector to explore measures to alleviate the homelessness crisis.

The meeting was convened following the death of homeless man Jonathan Corrie (43) a short distance from Leinster House last week.

The building in John’s Lane, owned by Focus Ireland, previously provided day services for homeless people and had planning permission to become apartments but was converted over the weekend to provide emergency beds.

Separate cubicles

“There will be some rooms for couples and some singles. There will also be rooms for up to eight, but these will have partitions to create separate cubicles for each person,” chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust,

Pat Doyle

said

While these beds would be for nightly use, a further 36 beds would be available in the Dublin 8 area from the end of next week which would offer sixmonth placements to homeless people.

Mr Kelly had committed to “full cost recovery” in relation to the running of these facilities, Mr Doyle said. “This is unusual, we usually have to put in some funding ourselves, but we have been told they will be fully funded.”

The John’s Lane facility is expected to stay open until March at a cost of €250,000, while the Dublin 8 unit will cost €600,000 a year to run.

Accommodation

A 40-bed unit, offered by the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, run by Crosscare, is also expected to open in the coming weeks.

Four office blocks and one hotel made available by Nama to provide emergency accommodation for homeless people sleeping on Dublin’s streets are being assessed for suitability by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive.

It is understood Nama identified four office buildings ranging in size from 3,000sq ft to 20,000sq ft in the north inner city, at Talbot Street, Blackhall Place, Ormond Quay and Smithfield. The vacant offices offered by the agency would require some alteration to make them suitable for residential use but a 100-bedroom hotel in the Tallaght area, also under the control of Nama, could be made available in the short term.