Homeless families in Dublin, unable to access emergency hotel accommodation, have been "spending the night in fast-food restaurants", Focus Ireland has said.
Mike Allen, director of advocacy with the charity, described a recent night wherea mother with a young child had, by midnight, been unable to access an emergency bed and so sought out a restaurant for overnight shelter.
This was despite the efforts of the family homeless action team (HAT) earlier in the day and the rough-sleeper intake team that night.
The HAT is run by Focus Ireland while the intake team is jointly run by the Focus Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust.
Mr Allen said that when all avenues are exhausted by midnight, the intake team is obliged to refer families at risk of sleeping rough to the Garda.
Restaurants
“However families are reluctant to go the guards because they fear social workers will be called and the children could be taken into care. We know a number have been spending the night in 24-hour fast-food restaurants, where apparently the staff look after them well.”
The news comes as the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) confirmed that homeless families were being placed in hotels as far away as Drogheda, Co Louth; Leixlip, Co Kildare, and Navan in Co Meath, as hotel rooms cannot be secured in the capital.
Families are also increasing being asked to find their own hotel rooms, which the DRHE will pay for, as services cannot access rooms for them.
Blow-up beds
On the night of September 5th, there were 324 adults “with dependent children in hotels in Bray, Drogheda, Navan and Leixlip as they could not find hotels to accommodate them within Dublin”.
In addition, according to Focus Ireland, between three and five families a night, with children, were being placed in adult hostels on blow-up beds.
Mr Allen said Focus Ireland was helping an average of 20 families a day to “self accommodate” - ie find a hotel. Of these, about two a day are newly homeless.
“In each case, often well over 100 phone calls are made before a place is found. The staff in the coffee-shop [the charity’s drop-in service] make calls until about 5.30pm at which point the HAT takes over.”
It was not uncommon, he said, for families with young children to be without a place to sleep until late at night.
A spokeswoman said the DRHE was “experiencing unprecedented demand for homelessness services and emergency accommodation”.
She said the monthly net increase in families in emergency accommodation was falling as families move out into homes. While there was a net increase of 86 families in January, this fell to 49 in April and five in August.
“From January to June 825 households moved from homeless accommodation into tenancies.”
