Simon Coveney Meeting Dublin Local Authorities To Discuss Homelessness
The Housing Minister’s meeting the bosses of Dublin’s four local authorities this evening to discuss the homeless crisis.
It’s after new figures showed that one child lost their home every five hours in Dublin last month.
According to figures – 1007 families were homeless in Dublin, with 730 of them living in hotels.
Out of that, 2,046 of them are children – 50 less than in December.
Homeless charities gave a cautious welcome to the figures but say more needs to be done to help families out of emergency accommodation.
Housing Minister Simon Coveney says he’s still aiming to have families in homes by the middle of this year.
“There is already a plan in place that is working towards that but we need to make sure that it will actually work. And really the focus has to be to move people from emergency accommodation into reliable and appropriate full time housing accommodation”.
Minister Coveney says that’s why he’s meeting the chief executives from the four Dublin local authorities later.
“To make sure we’re using homeless HAP, that we’re using the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme when it’s rolled out across Dublin in March.”
Dublin City Council said last week they’re hoping to open more family hubs, similar to the one in Drumcondra, where homeless families will have private rooms and space to cook and wash clothes.