Dublin Mayor says city’s rough sleepers can be housed ‘in 10 days’

Lord Mayor of Dublin Christy Burke says he believes it is possible to find suitable accommodation for the city’s rough sleepers within ten days.

The Lord Mayor made the comment before joining the forum on homelessness at the Custom House in Dublin on Thursday.

“The day of procrastination is over. The day of talking is over,” he added. “It’s a day of action, and let’s hope action takes place.”

“There’s some hypocrisy around when you decide to open homeless shelters and some politicians are out of the traps saying: ‘Not in my backyard.’ That needs to stop.”

The Mayor said on-street homelessness could be ended by using existing available accommodation, and bringing in medical teams to deal with mental health and addiction.

“It was heartbreaking to listen to Jonathan Corrie’s daughter and son ... saying he’d tried to get help from addiction services for years,” he said.

Speaking after he left the meeting at the Custom House Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin said: “We haven’t got all the answers”.

He said the meeting was very honest and “I think the Minister showed clearly he wanted something done.”

The Archbishop said the Homeless Executive is inspecting a Church-owned building he had volunteered as a possible source of additional accommodation.

He said it was not clear yet exactly how it would be used and said it may be more suitable for “long-term (housing) rather than immediate emergency (accommodation)”.