Homeless charity Depaul is opening a 100 bed cocooning unit today as a direct response to the Covid-19 crisis.
The facility, which is situated in Dublin’s city centre, is coming on stream in conjunction with the Health Service Executive and Dublin Region Homeless Executive.
It will cater for those within the homeless population with serious underlying health conditions and people will be assigned a bed on a coding system which takes into account age and any underlying medical conditions.
It is part of on-going efforts to identify and supply cocooning and isolation units for homeless people.
The charity has also said they have opened a smaller isolation unit with capacity for nine people.
Depaul’s CEO David Carroll says;
“Many homeless services operate on a congregated basis where the ability to self-isolate can be quite limited. This unit will provide those with serious underlying health conditions a secure setting and limit their exposure to infection."
The DRHE confirmed to city councillors on Wednesday that new accommodation had been sourced for the homeless population over the past two weeks.
It includes 160 self-contained apartments, 197 en-suite bedrooms in hotels, and 300 adult single occupancy beds.
The DRHE also said all one night only accommodation was now available 24 hours day with meals being provided on site.
While the executive said it was in the process of arranging the provision of food to all facilities where it had been restricted or stopped because of Covid-19.
