Extra Beds To Be Provided For Dublin’s Homeless Over Christmas

A new emergency night service to help the homeless in Dublin is to be launched in the next few weeks by charity Depaul Ireland.

The service will provide beds for 62 people and will be run from a hostel on Little Britain Street from 6.30pm each day.

There will be 40 beds for men, 12 for women, five for couples and five “high dependency” beds for people who have higher support needs.

The announcement comes as we near the two-year anniversary of the death of John Corrie, who died outside Leinster House in the winter of 2014 and sparked national outrage at the Government's homelessness policies.

The latest rough sleeper count shows that 142 people were sleeping on the streets without shelter on the night of November 22nd. This number is a drastic increase of 40 per cent since spring and more than 50 per cent since last winter.

Chief Executive of Depaul Ireland said that these new beds are essential, and that “it is Depaul’s aim that our new service is not only a roof over a person’s head, but that every person who enters the service will be helped to access supports and take steps to move away from homelessness".