Earlier: Watching Over Them
Tag Archives: Homeless
Rough Night
at
Bolt Hostel at 38/39 Bolton Street, Dublin 1
Kitty Holland, in today’s Irish Times, reports:
“Housing activists in Dublin have “reclaimed” a former hostel that has been vacant for three years, saying they will soon open it up to house homeless families.”
“Formerly known as Bolton House, the building on Bolton Street is owned by Dublin City Council and was used to accommodate homeless people before being closed in 2011.”
“In recent weeks however, organisations that have emerged in response to the housing crisis came together as the Irish Housing Network and identified the building as one they could quickly put back to use as emergency accommodation.”
“Among the nine groups involved are the North Dublin Bay Housing Crisis Committee, the Housing Action Network, Lending Hand and An Spréach, which means “Spark” in Irish.
Meanwhile, on its Facebook page, the people behind Bolt Hostel, write:
“Folks, we are looking for some donations for The Bolt Hostel. Items needed: Emulsion paint, preferably white or cream, gloss paint; rollers, paint brushes, masking tape, floor/dust sheets; sand paper; trays + rollers; grout for tiles; white spirit; ladder; mixing pots; lengths of timber, various sizes; nails; wood glue etc..”
“Kitchen utensils; cutlery; paper cups; bowls; toilet rolls; food; tea bags; sugar; milk; washing-up stuff, sponges; washing-up liquid; black bags; clothes; floor cleaner etc.”
“A dry and wet vacuum cleaner for the carpet; dust pan and brush; mop + bucket; bleach; bathroom cleaner etc.”
“Any items to make the place more homely; pictures; saor view box; side tables; lamps; cabinets; shelves; desk; chairs; rugs shower curtains; rugs etc.”
“Bed sheets; mattress covers; cushions/pillows; net curtains; mirrors;
Any help greatly appreciated.”
Activists reclaim vacant Dublin building to house homeless (Kitty Holland, Irish Times)
Crackbird, Dame Street, Dublin.
C writes:
Anti homeless sleeping measures cutely disguised as flower pots?
Top pic: Keith Thompson
Brian Gallwey at Dublin City Council’s Homeless Executive writes:
Thank you to all who took part in the Spring 2015 Rough Sleeping Count across the Dublin Region. The success of each count is reliant on volunteers helping out on the night.
The Spring 2015 Rough Sleeping Count identified a minimum of 105 persons sleeping rough across the Dublin region on the night of April 14 into the morning of April 15 The next count is scheduled to take place in early November 2015 [Details at link below]….
Thanks John Gallen
A short film by by journalist Matthew O’Brien and the Seeker Network about the hundreds of homeless people living in flood tunnels underneath Las Vegas.
The view from above is much prettier.
Via Rabble.ie
Philip Campion writes:
This happened on my way home from college on Friday its absolutely outrageous behavior by a Garda on Henry Street Dublin. A homeless man was treated like an animal, when a Garda tried to arrest him [for reasons unknown] he pushed him against the floor and pepper sprayed him right in the eyes when the man was clearly not making any sort of an attack or movement towards the Garda. He then stood there with his leg on the man as if the man was going to run somewhere.
The doorway close to Leinster House where Jonathan Corrie was found dead last month
A sleepover.
Hosted by Sinn Féin Dublin City councillor Chris Andrews.
He writes:
Homelessness not just about getting a room in a hostel. It needs more than that and Government needs to provide the services that are needed. Particularly addiction services and Mental Health services. We will be meeting outside the Dail on Kildare Street at 8pm and sleep out overnight to highlight the need for action. So lets wrap up and sleep out…
Dublin council workers clean up the scene where another homeless man died overnight in Dublin. pic.twitter.com/N3McX2Z5OK
— Michael Doyle (@MDoyler) January 9, 2015
Cow’s Lane, Temple Bar, Dublin this morning.
More to follow.
Update:
The Homeless Executive has not released the man’s identity but he is believed to have been a Lithuanian in his mid 50s.
The man was found dead at Cow’s Lane in Temple Bar very close to the headquarters of the Homeless Executive in the Civic Offices building.
A passerby noticed the dead man around 7am and the emergency services later pronounced him dead.
He had been working here and living in private accommodation before becoming involved with homeless services in February 2011.
In a statement, the Homeless Executive said that homeless services had made a number of interventions with the man and the Housing First organisation met with him yesterday to assess his health needs and to help with his application for housing.
But it said the man did not present himself for emergency accommodation last night and there were nine empty beds available.
The 31st annual Belvedere College Sleep Out at the Bank of Ireland, College Green, Dublin this morning
Last night.
A traditional sleep out for the homeless by warm-hearted ‘Belvo’ pupils.
The very essence of noblesse oblige.
Or something more jesuitical.
…And yet, for me, passing those students at the Bank of Ireland this morning, something about the scenario made me uncomfortable. In a city where homelessness has become a crisis, is it really appropriate for students at a fee-paying school to express their solidarity by sleeping out on thick rubber mattresses, with plenty of warm sleeping bags and clothing? The students texting away on their phones, surrounded by plastic boxes of Roses and Celebrations, looked more like they were between gigs at Electric Picnic. In fact, Kodaline appeared yesterday at the GPO to perform for them.
This is not what actual homeless people look like, nor how homeless people live. Also, I’ve seen real homeless people sleeping both outside the Bank of Ireland and outside the GPO; people now ironically displaced by those raising money for them.
Nobody could disagree with the fact that the three charities [Peter McVerry Trust, Focus Ireland and Home Again] the Belvedere Sleepout support are worthy recipients. But what was appropriate 31 years ago as a charity endeavour is surely now outdated. It has become distasteful. In a city where so many are homeless, it looks plain wrong to see what amounts to people simulating being homeless on our capital’s main streets. Perhaps 2015 is the year Belvedere College needs to rethink how it does its annual fund-raiser for the homeless.
Is a school sleepout best way to raise awareness of homelessness? (Rosita Boland, Irish Times)
Judith Goldberger writes:
Jesus is that churlish stuff in the Irish Times. A newspaper that can be safe in the knowledge that their major contribution to alleviation of the plight of the homeless is to help keep them warm at night [using discarded copies].
Oh.
Pic via Vinnie Quinn