At recent committee meetings, councillors talked about new places to put homeless accommodation, and a packed house in Portobello.
There were no beds available for women in homeless hostels on 15 February, according to Dublin Regional Homeless Executive. And some say it wasn’t a one-night problem.
Some councillors are wary about whether the council’s strategy for moving homeless families from hotels by 1 July is going work.
Rough sleepers and people living in emergency accommodation are counted as homeless. But couch-surfers, squatters, car-sleepers and many others are left out of the statistics.
But did the government push Apollo House residents to the front of the queue? A look at Dublin’s two-tiered system of emergency accommodation for homeless people.
Some called such sprinklers a “disgrace”, but the shop’s staff say after years of finding faeces and needles, “our priority is the well-being and safety of our staff”.
Councillors voted in favour of four new adverts in the south-east of the city to help fund DublinBikes, and said they were frustrated they hadn’t been kept in the loop about a new homeless hostel in the Liberties.
At last week’s Dublin City Council housing committee meeting, councillors discussed who’s monitoring homeless services and how to make sure you aren’t removed from the social housing list.
Across Dublin, rough sleepers have given up on calling the “homeless freephone” to get a spot in a hostel for the night. There’s no point, they say.
A year ago, Dublin City Council and housing activists clashed in court over the occupation of a vacant Bolton Street building. It’s still empty.
What should go on this site? The area desperately lacks green space for children to play in, but the number of homeless families in hotels continues to rise.
The two Dublin areas with the highest proportions of vacant dwellings aren’t exactly synonymous with vacancy.
