Over €4m allocated for homeless in South Dublin region
South Dublin County Council has allocated €4,475,400 in the Revenue Budget for 2024 for Homeless Services including additional staff and supports, directly and through the Dublin Region Homeless Executive.
The local authority says it continues to work proactively to address the ongoing challenges for households in need of accommodation by increasing new housing supply through partnerships with approved housing bodies, ongoing choice-based letting and other allocation options, turning around vacant council properties for re-letting, supporting HAP tenancies and engaging with landlords on potential tenant in-situ acquisitions.
By the end of October, there have been 138 allocations to homeless households in the county. Of the 138 total allocations 15 were allocated in October, three of these were singles and 12 were to families/couples (comprising a total of 24 adults & 40 children).
The council say they currently have a further 82 properties assigned to homeless households in the coming months, of which 30 have been formally offered accommodation so far. It should be noted that 22 offers of accommodation made to families in emergency accommodation have been refused to date this year.
The allocation team is prioritising allocations to homeless households, including three- and four-bed homes to reduce family homelessness, and they are also progressing significant numbers of tenant in-situ acquisitions to prevent further homelessness.
Within South Dublin County, the following emergency accommodation is currently provided: Family Hubs: High Street Family Hub (Abberley): a privately managed facility with 58 rooms (including nine large family rooms) which is currently fully occupied with 54 households, some of whom require more than one room due to family size, Firhouse Family Hub: managed by Respond Housing with 20 rooms and currently fully occupied by 20 households, Springfield Family Hub: also managed by Respond Housing and fully occupied accommodating 12 households in 12 family rooms and Cappaghmore Family Hub: managed by Peter McVerry Trust, comprising of 8 rooms for smaller families.
Accommodation for Singles include Finnstown which is privately managed facility comprising 45 rooms (with capacity for sharing) for single females, Killininey which is managed by Peter McVerry Trust with capacity for 21 for single males, Kiltipper which is managed by Peter McVerry Trust with capacity for 15 single males and Riversdale House, managed by Dublin Simon, with 25 rooms for single, older persons.
