A night café opens on Merchants Quay tonight as a result of the summit on homelessness which took place after the tragic death of Jonathan Corrie before Christmas. The café will open from 11.30pm to 7.30am every day and will offer a meal, hot drinks, shower facilities and interventions in relation to addiction and mental health.
Merchant Quay Ireland are running the service which is available to those who are not placed in overnight accommodation. It's only accessible through the housing first service and the local authorities, it's not a general access service. The reason for this is that local authorities want to ensure that people who are placed in overnight accommodation are not availing of this facility and therefore not using the bed has already been allocated to them.
You can listen to Cathal Morgan, director of the Dublin region homeless executive, discuss the new night café with RTE Morning Ireland here.
