Mountjoy Prison plan for rough sleepers
Dublin City Council (DCC) is considering using the training unit on the prison campus to house homeless people after the Department of Justice offered the premises to the local authority.
The unit closed earlier this year and is separate to the main prison. It had capacity to house 96 people.
An independent councillor for DCC, Mannix Flynn, said it was a “good news story” and that it was not akin to putting rough sleepers in prison.
“It is a separate complex to the main prison,” he said. “I would also ask the religious congregations to look around their estates for similar buildings. I also believe that Collins Barracks could be used to facilitate this emergency.”
However, Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) will request a meeting with the deputy chief executive of DCC, Brendan Kenny.
“There is a serious and dangerous game being played here,” said ICHH CEO Anthony Flynn yesterday. “ICHH will be requesting a meeting with Mr Kenny on Monday.”
Meanwhile, the Irish Housing Network, the group behind Apollo House, said the occupation of the building was a symbol of resistance and that the crisis of homelessness has worsened in the last 12 months.
“One year on, we would like to illustrate the situation now faced by those residents and activists as the housing crisis continues to worsen,” said a spokesman for the group.
Today, the Peter McVerry Trust will start building six new social housing units. It will also open new emergency accommodation for 100 single people and 24 families in Dublin, to be ready for Christmas. There are more than 8,000 people homeless in Ireland, 3,194 of whom are children.
