Number of homeless people on the rise in Tipperary

Tipperary County Council has been asked to consider providing hostel type accommodation in Clonmel to deal with the amount of homeless people in the town.

Cllr Pat English told the annual budget meeting that there was a need for hostel type accommodation in the town as there was no accommodation on the ground.

The Clonmel councillor told the meeting that there was between 10 and 12 homeless people sleeping rough in the town at the moment.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose said people not from Clonmel were presenting as homeless in Clonmel and seeking support.

Quite a number of them were not local, she said, and she asked officials to enquire as to where they were coming from.

Cllr English said the vast majority of homeless people in Clonmel were from the area.

Cllr David Dunne said he was concerned that the homeless figures in the county were still rising.

He asked officials if they would consider modular housing instead of B&B’s or hotels to tackle the problem.

Sinead Carr, Director of Services for Housing, said there was a huge level of need and all associated with the housing services were doing all they could to meet that need. In 2018 there was a budget for housing of €28 million and now that figure was at €47million.

The housing director said that more spaces were needed for homeless and the council needed more interest to be shown by the HSE and other services.

She said there was a particular need to address the issue of sleeping rough in Clonmel as that was where the greatest need was.

The vast majority presenting as homeless in Clonmel were from the area, said Sinead Carr.

Dealing with other housing matters, Sinead Carr told members that there had been a significant reduction in the number of people refusing local authority houses in the county.

That figure stood at 25% in 2018 and it was now standing at 4%.

Chairman Cllr Ger Darcy thanked the housing director and everybody working in housing for their dedication to the job which was one of the most toughest jobs in the local authority system.