Death of homeless man raised at council meeting

The death of a young homeless man who had been living rough between Navan and Kells in recent weeks, was raised at Monday's meeting of Meath County Council.

Cllr Alan Lawes said he had made representations about three homeless people sleeping rough in Navan but the youngest of these men died before he received a response.

“I emailed a member’s representation to the council on the 13th September about three long-term homeless men and sought a meeting with the council about finding a pathway for these men back into emergency accommodation.

“Unfortunately, the youngest of these three men passed away before I received an answer from Meath Co Council. All I received before today was an email saying MCC would look at my request.

“Then, this morning, well after that homeless man had passed, I received a more detailed answer for the two remaining homeless men left alive.”

Cllr Lawes said more and more people are slipping through the cracks in the services the council are providing.

“The cracks in services are widening even further and leaving more and more people sleeping rough and homeless.

“The change of policy by the council in asking homeless people to complete their housing application forms before gaining access to emergency accommodation is excluding more people from homeless services and increasing numbers sleeping rough.

“The failure of the council to provide its own hostel with the appropriate supports promised from as far back as 2012 is also increasing numbers left on the streets.

“The failure of the council to even try to adhere to a minimum response time of 48 hours passed by my motion to the council is also adding to homeless numbers.”

Cllr Lawes also expressed concern about the council's use of the “local connection rule” contained in the 2011 housing regulations which he said had also added to Meath’s homeless number.

“Two recent examples of this includes a single mother fleeing domestic abuse who has a GP in the county and is also a patient of Navan Hospital and whose child goes to school in Meath being refused emergency accommodation after being accommodated by the women’s refuge. Another homeless worker who worked for two local Meath companies over the last three years was also refused emergency accommodation which in my mind is totally wrong.”

The Chief Executive, Kieran Kehoe said he had asked Cllr Lawes to meet him personally to discuss the issue of homelessness which the council's team works diligently to resolve.

He couldn't say much about individual cases, but there are reasons why people who are in emergency accommodation are not retained in that accommodation.”We are doing what we can,” he said.

“To be fair to taxpayers, we have to be sure when somebody finds themselves homeless that they fill in the forms and our staff will help them with this. We are continuing to work on the provision of hostel accommodation,” he said.