Chief executive of Peter McVerry Trust to step down

Pat Doyle, the chief executive of homeless charity the Peter McVerry Trust, is set to resign from the position after nearly 20 years in the role.

In a message to staff on Friday evening, Mr Doyle announced he would be leaving the position at the end of May.

“After much consideration and considerable reflection, earlier this week I notified our founder and the chair of the board of my intention to resign as CEO of Peter McVerry Trust with a view to relinquishing the post on May 31st , 2023,” he wrote.

The long-serving homelessness chief executive said it had been a “tremendous honour” to work alongside Peter McVerry, who founded the charity, to develop the trust into a “national housing and homeless organisation”.

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“I have loved it, cared for it and worried about it as if it was family,” Mr Doyle said.

Mr Doyle took over as chief executive of the charity in 2005 and said “now is a fitting time to step aside”.

He told staff on Friday he now planned to return to “where it all started” 34 years ago and work on a “one-to-one basis” with those who were homeless.

The email to staff said the organisation currently provided 1,097 homeless hostel beds, 107 addiction beds, 47 beds for children, and more than 1,000 other residential units.

The charity was also managing 589 Housing First tenancies, which provide single homeless adults their own flat alongside supports to help them work on addiction or mental health problems.

Mr Doyle said he wanted to thank Peter McVerry “for putting his trust in me”, and the staff who worked for the charity during his time in charge. He said it had been “a great honour to be part of a growing, dynamic organisation”.

He added that he wished to assure staff and senior management of his “full support and assistance” in the handover to a new chief executive in the coming months.

The charity weathered controversy last September after a man was killed in a Housing First tenancy supported by the trust, in Kevin Barry House flat complex in Dublin’s north inner city.

[ Kevin Barry House killing: What now for Housing First policy to move people off streets? ]

Tony Dempsey (28), who was not the tenant, was killed in a violent assault, with his remains laying in the flat for about a week before the alarm was raised.

It emerged following the discovery that local residents had complained for more than a year about problems such as drug use, dealing and violent fights in the flat, after the tenant lost control of the property.

Following a review of the incident the Peter McVerry Trust and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) agreed a number of changes to the management of Housing First tenancies.