Tag Archives: Emergency Housing

The former B & B in  St Lawrence Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3 purchased by Dublin City Council last December to remodel as a family hub for 13 families

Millions have been spent on one house to cater for emergency accommodation.

So why does it resemble a building site?

A St Lawrence Road Resident writes:

On December 16, 2016, a B&B on St Lawrence Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3 was purchased for the Homeless Executive of Dublin City Council.

The transaction was rushed. No survey was done. Neither Councillors nor St. Lawrence Road residents were consulted. Planning Permission was not sought.

All because the Homeless Executive was determined to respond – swiftly and decisively – to Minister Simon Coveney’s directive about moving families out of hotels and B&Bs.

However, transformation of the houses into a “Family Hub” – only began in mid-April 2017.

Admittedly, since then the pace of work has been relentless. Builders and sub-contractors have laboured to adapt the houses to suit the needs of 13 families.

But work has been disrupted by the discovery of numerous, serious defects.

Residents warnings – that Victorian, terraced houses are, structurally and environmentally, unsuitable for Family Hub use – had been ignored by DCC.

With an unlimited budget and no accountability to elected representative, officials have discovered, the “hard way”, that such warnings were fully justified….

…which brings us to this picture (above) taken on September 10 –  nine months after the purchase of the houses. €3 million – allocated to helping the homeless – has been squandered on the effective destruction of two houses, in an area zoned for preservation.

Not one homeless family has been sheltered. €3 million could have bought ten semidetached homes, or fifteen apartments, ready for immediate occupation. But those in charge of public money are not very practical, or competent.

So, the Homelessness Crisis will be with us for a very long time.

Previously: There Goes The Neighbourhood

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