New medical centre for Dublin’s homeless population to be built

A new medical centre designed to cater for Dublin’s homeless population is set to be built by 2024, after progress on the development was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is expected that the centre will cost €30m to complete and will be located at Usher’s Island.

The 100-bed facility will also be partially funded by the Department of Housing and operated by the Dublin Simon Community.

Chief Executive of the homeless charity Sam McGuinness said he was pleased that work will soon begin on the centre

“We are delighted to mark commencement of building on this much needed facility.

“It has been a challenge to get to this point and today is marks an important milestone in the lives of those who have come through our treatment services and those who have yet to come to our door,” he says.

Dublin Simon Community has been providing medical and treatment services to homeless people in the city from Usher’s Island since 2002 and it is expected that the new centre will expand the range of offered supports.

In 2019, the charity saw an 18% increase in a demand for its services with nearly 1,300 people treated that year.

McGuinness says that Dublin Simon Community has been overwhelmed in recent years.

“The medical needs of the homeless population are increasingly complex and the delivery of a service of this size and quality is a testament to our commitment to improve outcomes for this vulnerable cohort.”

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien TD said that the centre will be a “significant development”.

“Simon Communities have been a really important part of my taskforce on homelessness through their chief executive and the team.

“Thankfully we are seeing reductions, particularly child and family homelessness, we are down about 47% over the last 12 months.

“We are down overall (homelessness) just short of 20%.

“It’s still too high, there is no questions about that.

“You will see when we publish our Housing for All plan in the next few weeks, I will look at ramping up the social housing delivery.”

Regarding the Government’s decision to delay the publication of its major strategy on housing, Minister O’Brien said that he wants a plan that is “costed and deliverable.”

“It’s challenging but it will be published in the coming weeks.

“Around 4% or 5% of the plan on Housing for All just needs to be nailed down further, there is some work we are doing on that.

“The finances have been agreed.

“For the sake of a few weeks I have no bother taking any punches in that regard as it’s important we get it right.

“There is a bit more work to do on vacancy and I want to us be able to utilise the stock that is there already.”