Extra beds available for homeless during cold snap
Updated / Tuesday, 9 Feb 2021
20:32
Dublin Correspondent
Forty-five contingency beds for the homeless have been activated in Dublin as part of the response to current cold snap.
The Extreme Weather Initiative Protocol was initiated by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) at the weekend and allows for up to 100 extra beds spaces - some of them camp beds - to be used for rough sleepers.
This is on top of the 340 extra beds - 300 permanent and 40 temporary - announced as part of the Cold Weather strategy last November.
A spokesperson for the DRHE said that all beds are now given on a rolling 24-hour basis, which means
Rise in single homeless in Kildare and Dublin
Over 130 adults homeless in Kildare in December
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Dublin Simon Community, which serves Kildare, says the alarming rise in numbers of single people entering homelessness is being overshadowed by an overall reduction in homelessness figures.
This comes as the December 2020 Homeless Report was released today by the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage.
According to the report, 6,022 people were recorded in Dublin emergency accommodation in December 2020. This represents an 11.7% decrease on December 2019, which Dublin Simon welcomed and attributed to the strong collaboration between local authorities, agencies, and NGO partners over the last 12 months.
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There s been a reduction of almost 16% in the total number of people in emergency accommodation.
Meanwhile the number of homeless families has also dropped, by over 37%, representing 578 families.
The latest figures from the Department of Housing compare the totals in December 2019 with the same month in 2020.
However according to Dublin Simon, the number of single homeless adults is up by 8.6% in that time.
In 2019 the figure was 4,094, and has risen to 4,447 - which is 76% of the national total of homeless people.
Family Homelessness is back down to March 2016 levels, but Threshold says that it was an abject crisis five years ago, so it s still too high now.
Chinese invest in Irish social housing and nursing homes 200 secure Irish residency through investments via developer Richard Barrett’s Bartra
Sat, Jan 9, 2021, 01:00
Chinese investors are paying €1 million each to social housing schemes planned by developer Richard Barrett’s Bartra Capital, in return for the right to live in the Republic under a Government cash for residency programme.
The Department of Justice’s Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP) allows non-EU citizens and their families the right to live in the Republic in return for investments or charity donations.
Bartra confirmed on Friday that it has been using the scheme to raise capital from Chinese investors to build social housing and nursing homes in the Republic.