People sleeping rough instead of in hostels over coronavirus fears, campaigner says
The hundreds of beds sourced across Dublin for homeless people are not being seen on the ground, a campaigner has claimed.
Anthony Flynn, the head of Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH), said there has been a massive increase in the number of homeless people leaving shared hostel accommodation over fears of becoming infected with coronavirus.
The Dublin councillor said that individuals are not able to self-isolate in hostels as up to six people could be sharing one room.
Up to 350 hotel rooms and living spaces were made available to Dublin’s homeless services over the last few weeks.
The measures are part of the Government’s efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The homelessness campaigner has said that the number of rough sleepers has not reduced, as many have decided to sleep rough rather than overcrowd the system.
Mr Flynn said that today, ICHH served basic food provisions to more than 2,000 people while more than 300 hot meals were gone in 15 minutes last week.
He said: “There has been an increase in relation to the number of people who need assistance and in the number of people leaving hostels because the chances of self-isolating in hostels are slim.
“The hostels are overcrowded and we are now seeing this new wave of people coming into the homeless system in the last two weeks.
“People are afraid they will catch coronavirus in hostels.
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