Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Leon Farrell/Rollingnews.ie
Homelessness
Homeless families asked to pay €37 a week to live in 'hubs'
Family hubs are group accommodation units specifically for homeless families.
6.00pm, 3 Jul 2017
31.0k
74
HOMELESS FAMILIES BEING moved from hotels into “family hub” facilities are asked to pay a fixed rate charge of €37 per week.
Family hubs are group accommodation units specifically for homeless families looking for permanent accommodation. They aim to provide cooking, cleaning and on site support services for families.
Families are given wrap-around support during the time they spend at the hubs, and have staff who work in helping them secure long-term alternative accommodation.
The hubs are part of the government’s solution to the numbers of families forced to live in hotels due to homelessness. In March of this year, the then-Housing Minister Simon Coveney pledged that hotels would no longer be used to house homeless families by this month.
Families who are currently living in commercial hotels or B&Bs are not asked to pay a weekly charge for their accommodation.
A spokesperson for Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) – which manages the homeless services for the entire Dublin region – confirmed to TheJournal.ie that:
Families residing at family hub facilities will where possible pay the fixed rate charge of €37 per week (under the family household budget scheme).
In cases where families earn more than €300 per week, the payment will be €45.
In May of this year (the latest month for which figures are available), there were 794 families with 1,592 children living in commercial hotels in the Dublin region.
The new family hubs are being opened up by Dublin City Council, in partnership with the DRHE, to support the families who are currently in commercial hotels.
A number of not-for-profit organisations currently operate the hubs in Dublin.
Families will pay the amount that they can based on their income levels and family composition, according to a DRHE spokesperson.*
In development
Today, the DRHE confirmed to TheJournal.ie that there will be a total of 18 family hubs that will provide accommodation to circa 634 families. The numbers of families in each service will vary from 12 up to 80.
Currently, fifteen hubs are being developed by the DRHE at a total estimated cost of €25million, to provide accommodation for some 600 families at any point in time.
It was initially reported in TheJournal.ie in May that the DRHE’s end goal was to have 10 to 15 hubs in order to provide accommodation for about 500 families.
Advertisement
The calculation of cost for families to live in the hubs is based on the Dublin City RAS units and Community Welfare Office system, which is in turn based on the amount of rent supplement a household would be entitled to, based on their income.
According to DRHE, families can either opt to pay the charge via the family household budget scheme or via payment card provided by the council.
NGO providers such as Crosscare, Respond and Salvation Army, who hold a service level agreement with the council, will receive the payments directly from the households.
Criticism
Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) has heavily criticised Dublin City Council for asking residents of the hubs to pay a weekly charge.
“Hubs are in place as a transition to housing which I highly doubt,” CEO of ICHH Anthony Flynn said, raising concerns about how long the families would have to stay in the hubs.
The amount charged isn’t far off the normal rent with a housing co-op or DCC unit.
Except here you have to share your washer, dryer, cooker, kitchen with other families and be rostered to do so.
It’s a highly unacceptable situation.
The plan to use a former Bargaintown warehouse in Coolock as a family hub was met with local resistance and the use of former commercial hotels has also been strongly criticised.
Eleven months ago the government launched its action plan, Rebuilding Ireland, to address housing and homelessness in Ireland.
One aspect of the plan that caused a lot of commentary at the time was the commitment to end the use of commercial hotels and Bed & Breakfasts to house homeless families by the middle of 2017.
The commitment around hotels and families in the plan is this:
Ensure that by mid-2017 hotels are only used in limited circumstances for emergency accommodation for families, by meeting housing needs through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and general housing allocations, and by providing new supply to be delivered through:
- An expanded Rapid Build Housing Programme [1,500 units]
- A Housing Agency initiative to acquire vacant houses [1,600 units]
However, over the past few months it became apparent that the commitment would not be met on time and the “family hubs” began to be developed.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Does Ireland need more data centres in the near future? Yes, says Taoiseach
25 mins ago
310
Belfast
'Calculating' teacher who groomed and sexually abused teenage pupil jailed for two years
42 mins ago
2.4k
Ireland Funds gala
Members of Enoch Burke's family forcibly removed from gala dinner in Washington DC after disrupting speech
Jane Matthews
Reports from Washington DC
17 hrs ago
94.2k
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 157 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 109 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 141 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 111 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 132 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 38 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 90 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 97 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 86 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 68 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say