Call to open up vacant Citywest Golf Hotel for homeless families
By Laura Lyne
CALLS to open the vacant Citywest Golf Hotel as short-term accommodation for homeless families across the county have been made as the number of people identifying as homeless across the county continues to increase.
The Citywest Golf Hotel is located across from the Citywest Hotel complex, and The Echo understands that it was not included in the €29 million sale of the hotel, conference centre and leisure centre to Brehon Capital Partners in September 2014.
Previous reports state that the ground floor of the golf hotel, which includes the Lemongrass restaurant, may have been included in the sale of the Citywest hotel to Brehon Capital.
Speaking to The Echo, independent councillor Dermot Richardson said: “There are 490 rooms in this hotel and it is lying empty since 2010 – they could be used as a short-term solution to the homeless crisis.
“The owners of these suites are currently being locked out by the receiver and if they were allowed access they could potentially be rented out to the council to accommodate people.
“At present when people are homeless and present themselves at the council they can be asked to self-accommodate. Trying to find a hotel or B&B to take them in is impossible, making the homeless problem more stressful for the families and individuals involved.
“Families are coming to the council every night and there are many single people who are homeless and have nowhere to go. The council is strapped every night dealing with it.
“These are not people who have drug or alcohol problems, they are people who feel helpless and isolated.
“The government needs to take action and NAMA and the receivers are not doing enough to help the government.
“We must act now to solve this problem. Prefabs will take months to be sorted while we have empty buildings lying empty in the county.”
Attempts to contact the receiver of the Citywest Golf Hotel about its proposed use were made by The Echo but it was not available in time for print.
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