A new emergency accommodation facility for homeless families is set to open fully at the end of this month in Drumcondra.
The facility, which is located in High Park and has been gradually opening since November, has a capacity of 41 families. It is currently housing 22 families, with 31 children, all with access to cooking and laundry facilities.
The opening of the facility has largely been in response to the high volume of homeless people using private emergency accommodation such as hotels, B&Bs and other residential facilities, which do not have adequate supports. Out of the 3162 homeless adults in Dublin, over half use this type of accommodation.
Although, the number of families that are homeless has not risen in the last two months, with 1028 families without a home, including 2098 children, many charities that work with homeless families, such as Focus Ireland, feel that the crisis is continuing to deepen.
“We worked to support over 230 families to move out of homelessness into secure homes in the first ten months of last year. However, as these new figures show there is still much work to be done if we are to end this homeless crisis” said a spokesperson for Focus Ireland.
The total figure for individuals who have moved from homelessness to housing has also increased this year, with the figures for 2016 exceeding the total number of moves in any other year. Movement to privately rented accommodation, social housing and move-on tenancies, with numbers of 267, 144 and 411, combined to create this total.
The facility was given the go-ahead by Dublin City Council after two months of planning by Respond’s new chief executive Declan Dunne, who was appointed to the post in August of last year. The site, which was previously being used as student accommodation, has been transformed into a home for 41 families.
The Minister for Housing, Simon Coveney, hopes that the emergence of these types of facilities will reduce the amount of families living in hotels. Dunne also estimates the cost of the service will be 70 per cent less than the cost of a hotel room.
By Lucy Mangan
Image Credit: Lucy Mangan
The Irish Newsroom 