We should look after our own - Greenan

Cavan County Council has rejected a motion to open up its buildings to homeless people, whose numbers have quadrupled in recent years, despite a homeless man sleeping in a tent on council-owned land in Cavan Town.
The Anglo-Celt is aware of at least one area in the town regularly being used by the man but, under advice from local homeless campaigners, will not reveal his location as it could make him vulnerable to attacks, similar to those recently recorded in Dublin.
At Monday’s council meeting Cavan Town, Cllr Eugene Greenan tabled an unsupported motion reading:
“That Cavan County Council opens some of its own buildings, as day and night shelters, for homeless and displaced people from County Cavan.”
During that meeting the figures for people presenting as homeless were revealed with the up-to-date number on track to be just over four times that of just two years ago.

Quadrupled since 2013
The 2013 figure quoted at the meeting for homeless presentations was 22, this increased to 60 for all of 2014 and rose again this year-to-date to 78, which is on course to be 90 by the end of the year.
Cllr Greenan questioned the fact that there was no shelter provided and asked the council “as one of the biggest landlords” in the county, to use its own property to address the need.
“There is no place for homeless or displaced people to go,” said Cllr Greenan. He highlighted the dramatic increases in homeless presentations and said he recently received a phonecall that another man was sleeping rough in a local park.
The Sinn Féin man said the measure could be specifically prepared for persons whose last know address is Co Cavan.
“We’re not opening the door to the whole country. Each local authority can look after their own people,” he said.
Cllr Greenan suggested the opening of the Bridge Street Centre, adding that “putting a sleeping bag on a meeting room floor has to be better than sleeping out in a field.
“Winter is approaching, the last thing we want is for some person out there to get hypothermia,” he said.

Sensitive
Director of Services for Housing Joe McLoughlin said that there were a number of issues with Cllr Greenan’s proposal and that providing a shelter would entail the need to provide ancillary services such as addiction and mental health services.
He said the figures mirrored the situation occurring in other counties around Ireland and that a number of sensitive processes need to be addressed, including whether the person is homeless and why.
Mr McLoughlin said that the council provides B&B services while, efforts are made to secure long or short term accommodation for the person, adding that talks with the local SVdP chapter on the shelter had been held.
“What do I do when I get a call at 9pm at night?” lamented Cllr Greenan. “What do I do? Our phone doesn’t stop ringing after 5pm.”
Cavan County Council had been contacted for further comment but no calls had been returned at the time of going to print yesterday lunchtime.