Sleeping Woof

at

904376499043766790437646904376849043767790437663904376799043765290437689 90437690

90437658apollo

90437671

Yesterday.

Apollo House, Tara Street, Dublin.

Home Sweet Home Volunteers, including Robbie ‘the rogue plumber’ (pic 2) and Sandra Earley (pic 3), have transformed the office building into bedrooms, social areas, kitchens, store rooms and a kennel for the resident dog. The High Court has ruled the occupation end on January 11.

Yesterday: Not Just For Christmas

Dr Rory Hearne: Apollo, Nama and You

Sam Boal/Rollingnews

Sponsored Link

29 thoughts on “Sleeping Woof

  1. dav

    Driving the blushirts mad, by shining a light on their war against the poor and the week of this nation. Fair play.

  2. Cian

    Why are they still wasting time/energy/resources on making changes to Apollo house that will be wasted in 7 days time when they have to leave?

        1. Nigel

          More or less, or at least betrays a fundamental lack of understanding that when you’re homeless everything is temporary, so you make the best of what you can when you can. Seven days might be a big deal if most other days you don’t know if you’ll have somewhere safe to sleep at night.

          1. Joe Small

            That’s quite naïve. Homeless charities operate on the long term, not for a few weeks until the celebrity endorsements and volunteers drop off. I think any proper measure would regard Apollo House as a waste of limited resources – enormous effort for a few weeks for 30-40 people given the enormity of the housing problem in Ireland. I’m not being callous – its just the realities of managing major problems with limited means.

          2. Nigel

            The operate on the long-term because homelessness is a long-term problem which has reached a current state of ongoing crisis stretching existing services beyond breaking point, rendering nearly all efforts on the ground short-term, ad hoc and chaotic. What’s bewildering is that people would criticise these efforts as short-term. Of course they’re short-term. it’s all short term until the government gets their act together. The reality is that 30 or 40 people in shelter for a few weeks is a real achievement. Criticising the people on the ground because their measures are short-term is just missing the wood for the trees.

  3. Fully Keen

    I wish I was as blinkered as you. Must be nice. Just pick a side and plough through till death. Keep going, that will teach the parents.

  4. DubLoony

    Serious question: what will happen to the people sheltered there on the 11th?
    The HSH people told them that they would end homelessness for good.

    1. dav

      “The HSH people told them that they would end homelessness for good.”
      you got a source on that??

      In any event ending homelessness for good, seems like a worthy cause, better than vigorously fighting for Apples tax scams in the EU courts, eh?

    2. Daddy

      “The HSH people told them that they would end homelessness for good”

      They never said that and you know it. So less of the cynical misinformation.

      1. Nigel

        I expect on Jan 11th the volunteers on the front lines and the activists will continue to work hard to try and keep her and everyone else in some sort of safe and secure accommodation while continuing to try and shame the government into action. You seem to be expressing disdain for an expression of hope and optimism, which must be stamped out wherever it’s found, apparently.

          1. Nigel

            Why, you rapscallion purloiner of patronymics to which you are unentitled! Confounded incompetent online impersonator! Insecure jackanapes! Etc.

          2. Nigel

            I would speculate that your incomprehension springs from a surfeit of ignorance which you attempt to conceal through the repeated utilisation of transparent rhetorical ploys in a vain effort to appeal to fellow anti-intellectuals. Alternatively you have a severe allergy to vocabulary, a startlingly profound insufficiency of good humour, and a sadly misdirected passion for trivial and pointless vendettas.

        1. DubLoony

          Bloody hell, I’m not expressing disdain for hope.
          I’m asking what will happen to the people who are sheltering in the building.

          We’re not allowed to ask questions about this action now?

          1. Nigel

            Well perhaps you’re coming to appreciate the level of uncertainty homeless people and the volunteers and services who try to help them live with every day. They might not answer because they’re too busy trying to find answers themselves.

    3. Otis Blue

      The previous Government committed to end long term homelessness by December 2016.

      How’s that working out?

  5. dav

    Make sure you sign the petition.

    https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/sign-the-open-letter-use-nama-to-end-homelessness

    “In summary, the letter states:

    1. The building known as Apollo House, in Dublin city centre, has been occupied by HSH as a last resort to provide safe and secure accommodation for people sleeping rough on the streets.

    2. The receivers acting for NAMA obtained a court injunction to force all the occupants of Apollo House to vacate it by noon on 11th January 2017.

    3. Whilst the receivers contend that there are enough adequate beds for rough sleepers in Dublin, Fr. Peter McVerry states otherwise on affidavit, and the most recent government statistics (released on 30th December 2016) confirm that homelessness is increasing.

    4. Under section 14 of the NAMA Act, the Minister for Finance is empowered to direct NAMA to make properties under its control available “to contribute to the social and economic development of the State”.
    Ireland has obligations under European and international law to provide social housing and to work towards the elimination of homelessness.

    5. NAMA has ample housing stock currently under its control which can be made available, through various mechanisms, to individuals and families who are currently homeless or under threat of being made homeless.

    6. NAMA is planning to build 20,000 homes in the next three years but only 10% of these will be made available for social housing despite the worst housing crisis in the history of the State.
    NAMA is focused on returning a profit to the exchequer at some point in the future as a priority above tacking the homelessness crisis.

    7. The Minister for Finance must act now to compel NAMA to take immediate and effective steps to combat the homelessness crisis.

    Please support Home Sweet Home’s initiative to force the government to end homelessness in Ireland by signing this letter.

    You can read the full letter here: http://tinyurl.com/h7zdsvl

Comments are closed.

Sponsored Link
Broadsheet.ie