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A FAMILY WITH three children were forced to sleep rough in a Dublin park after being evicted from their rented accommodation.
It’s understood the family, who are Romanian and have no English, were not evicted over a failure to pay rent, but rather as a result of problems between their landlord and the banks.
The mother and father, whose children are aged five, three and two, were unable to source alternative accommodation and had been sleeping rough in the Phoenix Park before yesterday.
The family’s plight first came to light following a Facebook post by homeless charity Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) who put the five people up in their office overnight.
Before encountering the ICHH the family were referred to homeless voluntary organisation Focus Ireland by Brother Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Centre, which provides food to the homeless.
According to the ICHH the family were advised that there was nowhere available for them and were given sleeping bags, and told to ‘come back tomorrow’.
“They came into my centre for food having slept in the Phoenix Park the previous night, and I referred them to Focus Ireland,” Brother Crowley told TheJournal.ie.
Apparently they were found at 11.30pm last night in Mountjoy Square Park after being left out on the street.
The two elder children were sleeping on a plank with the youngest in a go-car, while their parents kept watch.
Horrified
I’m simply horrified that this can happen in 2015. No child at that age can be left on the street.
They were with us at 7.30 this morning and the children are absolutely exhausted.
Focus Ireland have commented on the situation saying that the Taoiseach is failing to show the leadership needed to help end the family homelessness crisis.
“The family homeless crisis is getting out of control and must now be responded to as a national emergency by the government,” the group said in a statement.
According to Focus Ireland at least five families were forced to sleep rough on the streets of Dublin in July.
Christy Burke, former lord mayor of Dublin and chairman of ICHH, says that the situation is so extreme that it warrants recalling the Dáil.
“Listening to the Taoiseach at Knock last Sunday, he was blowing smoke – it’s action that’s needed now, not words,” he told TheJournal.ie.
This isn’t even the only family we were dealing with yesterday – another mother and her 15-year-old son have been sleeping in the A&E department of the Mater hospital for the last few nights because they’ve nowhere else to go. And we’re volunteers. We don’t receive any state funding.
There’s 550 families on the homeless register at the moment – that’s 1,300 people. If that isn’t a crisis what is?
Burke refused to be critical of the fact the family (who he described as “as lovely as you could meet, and so appreciative of the help we were giving them”) were turned away when looking for accommodation.
Look I want to commend the homeless services on the frontline. They don’t want to be turning people away – if they don’t have any spaces they can’t just create them.
The people who need to be acting are the landlords who are evicting people under false pretenses and the government.
“My plea is that they won’t be on the streets tonight,” said Brother Crowley regarding the family.
If I’d known what would happen to them I would have put them in a B&B myself. It’s absolutely appalling.
Sure it’s only tax payers money….
@Martin Smith: I wonder how many wasters were fired over that loss?
@Martin Smith: exactly, that’s the thinking throughout the public sector
@Jonathan: thats 315 houses LPT tax at average house price, or 10 days needlessly renting the convention center for the dail…… How this DERELICT property wasnt fully assessed before purchasing is bad enough, how it wasnt maintained after purchase is even worse…… Poor management again and probably more unaccountably…… We’re hemmorhaging money everywhere and the net result of government inefficiency and unaccountably is to raise taxes….. God help everyone in this mismanaged country. Imagine how better off we would be as a society if the country was run with some sort of competence and efficiency.
DCC must be the only property dealer to loose money when selling a property while property prices have been rising more than inflation in the last 5 years, regardless of the bad condition of the building.
@Goran Josifov: Anyone know why they bought this property in the first place.
@Michael Reilly: The pub, had been a popular meeting spot for theatre goers, but closed more than a decade ago. The four-storey Victorian building, which is on the record of protected structures, became increasingly dilapidated and by 2014 had been boarded up.
In 2017 the council bought the pub to stop it from falling into further decay. An inspection noted parts of the roof were missing with a “large number of plastic bags containing bird droppings stored throughout the building”.
The council had initially hoped to reach a deal with the Abbey Theatre, which had “expressed an interest in utilising the buildings when refurbished”. However no agreement was reached.
@Daniel O’Connor: Lovely, so now they’re going to sell it off to some crony at a bargain price, no doubt.
City Council spending tax payer’s money with no consequences for loss, unelected bureaucrats leaving people sleeping on the street’s to die & yet another building empty & derelict due to their collective negligence. Time they were told to sling their hook.
I know there is a loss here to the council (which is bad enough) but the more important questions are:
What was the intended use for this building when they bought it and what has changed since?
Why are DCC using taxpayers money to buy commercial buildings that they have no intention of using?
Who was the previous owner of the building before DCC bought it?
@The next small thing: This explains it all a bit more… https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/city-councillors-block-sale-of-dublin-s-plough-pub-1.4536468?mode=amp
@William Tallon: Cheers for that, bit more detail there alright. So basically they bought the property for speculation, in that they hoped the Abbey would want it, they didn’t so now want to flog it to a developer and then rent 6 apartments back for circa 150,000 p.a. They will then rent these for social housing where they will probably get about 15,000 rent for the 6 apartments and never actually own them. They should have just impossed levies on the original owner under the Derelict Sites Act and could have netted about 24,000 until the original owner refurbished the property or sold it onto someone who would.
@The next small thing: That would make sense, but someone will obviously benefit from having left it to crumble into the street instead. It shows how the rest of the city can be left with derelict buildings standing empty as well. Great management.
Only in Ireland, can the council buy property and loose money in the middle of a property boom. Incompetence doesn’t come close to describing these people. I wonder is there a friend looking to buy this property on the cheap?
ah the plough, over fourteens only
@Dave: happy memories. I waited until I was 15 though
That’s on just one building wait until they start building housing estate with there very own workers
Don’t worry. Our increase in property tax will cover such things…
They will sell it to one of their mates who will sell it for millions in profit
Not fit for purpose Thats the Council not the Building..
How did they manage to lose money on Dublin property?
Its easy to be incompetent when you get paid every week regardless.
Only taxes nothing to see here.
What the hell is going on here?, they paid 800k (and the rest) and they didn’t bother to fix the effing roof or deal with the vermin problem. That’s a bread and butter job for the council surely or with help from OPW?
Sorry, but there should be a sacking for the persons who stood over this.
Why is the council speculating on property deals instead of busying themselves with actual council business because last time I looked organizing some bins and port-a-pottys was a herculean task for them.
Did someone in the Abbey ask the council to buy it so that the pub could be saved?
Some ex-NAMA greaseball developer will now buy this for 500k and sell it in a few years for 4 times that.
How many other properties like this have Dublin City Council bought, how many have they also ignored and allowed to rot, and how much is the taxpayer on the hook for?
No.1 Rule, do not pish away taxpayers money.
@Eddie O’Neill: Plenty of abandoned buildings all over the place, and not a bother on them. I’m beginning to think that every single Councillor and TD should be required to walk through our capital city once a month to see all the empty buildings growing weeds.
Typical of the council. They must be getting their advice from the OPW
Another shower of wasters
@Mike Heelan: after dealing with some departments within the OPE I strongly oppose your generic view.
They’re actually pretty good.
But sure, keep bashing but don’t step up.
Some businessmen
Bought a naggin there when I was 16
@Maalouf: Back then you would have got money back on the bottle!
All councils should be disbanded and replaced with a new body. They are totally useless
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