Brú Aimstir opened their doors on Friday the 20th November for homeless people who have been sleeping rough. Brú Aimstir is a new service provided by the Cold Weather Initiative in Dublin 8 and will be running this service for the time being during 2015 and 2016.
The facility is able to accommodate 80 men and 20 women at any given time who are at risk of dying or getting injured because of cold temperatures. Dublin City Council and Dublin City Council’s Homeless Central Placement Service is providing the service and has Crosscare working with them to take responsibility of the day-to-day management and services of the facility.
So what can the homeless expect from a place like Brú Aimstir? There will be breakfast and light evening meals served every day with shower and laundry facilities available. For those who fall ill there is a supportive network provided by the HSE called SafetyNet, providing nurses, a GP and holistic therapies on-site.
Art, music and photography classes will be given for those who are interested in keeping busy with something else than worrying about the difficult times they must be enduring this winter.
For the moment there are only 100 beds at Brú Aimstir, but there are more on the way. There will be 37 family units and 18 units for couples added; and 80 additional rooms for families, but this is still in the offing stages.
The Housing First Intake Team is operating a service from 7am to 1am and will go around helping those who sleep rough to get a bed for the night, but if you see someone you would like to help into a safe shelter like Brú Aimstir, you can report the person’s whereabouts to http://www.homelessdublin.ie/report-rough-sleeper#1.
Some of the soup kitchens will be extending their opening hours this winter. The Capuchin Centre will be opening at 7am instead of 9am and Merchants Quay Ireland will serve breakfast from 7.30am and the Night Cafe will stay open all night.
But it is not only the winter months that should concern us when it comes to those who sleep rough or find themselves homeless. What happens when Christmas and Winter have come and gone?
There are plans to help those who have been helped into one night accommodation facilities into more permanent accommodation. 500 Modular Housing Units have been promised for the Dublin region with the first ones opening to the homeless in Ballymum by the 21st December. These Modular Houses are temporary accommodation for families who are currently living in hotels and bed and breakfasts.
This is great news and I hope we will see less people suffering in the cold this year so that we can all enjoy a happy Christmas. This weekend the temperatures started dropping and the nights are now hitting the minus scale. Friday was 0 degrees and last night -1 degrees Celsius. So it is really important that we take care of our brothers and sisters and get them out of their colder circumstances.
Let’s hope there are enough beds to accommodate all of those who are in need as I am pretty sure that once word spreads there will be many prodigal children looking for the comfort of a warm house.
