Housing protest meeting discuss use of "containers" to house the homeless

Dun Laoighre/Rathdown housing crisis action group

A public meeting took place in Dun Laoighre on Wednesday night to highlight the need for action on the current national housing crisis. The meeting, which was held in the Portview Hotel, was attended by about thirty people who appear broadly based and united in their determination to highlight the serious social injustice that is the housing crisis.

Chaired by Christopher Potts, the meeting was addressed by a number of speakers including Peter McVerry S.J and founder of the Arrupe Society and Richard Boyd-Barrett of the S.W.P. The meeting was also attended by Jon Glackin and a small group from Street Seen. A representitive of the Labour party turned up to apologise for the abscence of local Labour party T.D Eamonn Gilmore. Two local councillors who attended walked out early into the proceedings.

After a lengthy discussion the group adopted a raft of issues which they intend to call on local and central government to act on. These included the building of more local authority housing, the enforcement of the social and affordable quotas, the direct construction of housing by the local authority using directly employed labour, the provision of emergency accomodation including wet shelters and the provision of Halting sites for the Travelling community.

It was also decided to hold a protest at the meeting of Dun Laoighre/Rathdown council on monday the 28th of November and to support the Street Seen protest which will take place in Dublin city centre on the 24th november.

Throughout the meeting a number of housing issues were raised and particularly highlighted was the fact that up to 19 homeless people are currently being provided with emergency accomodation in portable container like structures which have no proper sanitation facilities. It was alleged that the clients of this facility are forced to use a bucket in the "containers" as a lavatory and that there is no privacy whatsoever when doing so, despite the fact that the clientele are both males and females.This facility is under the management of Dublin Roman Catholic diocese through it's organisation Crosscare, serious concerns were raised about this particular issue, with allegations that the facility is in serious breach of health and safety and also possibly fire safety regulations. These allegations regarding government funded and church/brand name charity run facilities mirrors similar concerns which have been raised regarding emergency accomodation in the city centre. The apparent disregard for health and safety legislation and fire safety legislation regarding these facilities must raise serious concerns about their management and the the willingness of local authoities to allow such disregard for the safety of homeless persons in emergency accomodation.