Two new centres for homeless people in Dublin are being opened, to meet demand after the closure of another which was temporarily set up during Storm Emma and the Beast from the East.
The two new emergency homeless services have been opened by the Peter McVerry Trust, with help from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive and the Department of Housing.
A homeless centre set up in St Catherine’s sports centre during the freezing weather is closing its doors today.
It is hoped the opening of two new centres will offer continues stable support to those homeless people who came in off the streets during the snow and accepted assistance.
Pat Doyle, CEO of Peter McVerry Trust, said the St Catherine’s sports centre "was only ever an extreme and exceptional measure, to prevent loss of life, and clearly wasn’t suitable for continued use."
At its peak, 121 people were accommodated in the sports centre, and it is now hoped many of those who were helped will continue to engage with homeless services on a long-term basis.
Pat Doyle said the work undertaken in the past week has been "unprecedented", and thanked all his own teams, as well as those from St Catherine’s sports centre, Dublin City Council, the DRHE and the Department of Housing.
