€1.4m facility opened to help Dublin’s homeless

An Taoiseach Mr Bertie Ahern TD today officially opened a new €1.4m extension to the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin’s north inner city.

The new facility was required to enable the Capuchin Day Centre to properly look after Dublin’s most needy in a safe and comfortable environment.

The project cost a total of €1,400,000, of which a hugely generous anonymous donor gave a vital €500,000 towards the cost of the new facility. The Department of Health and Children provided an additional €500,000 while the Department of Environment gave €342,000 for refurbishing the kitchen area. The People in Need Telethon donated €30,000. Whelan Corcoran Smith are the architects responsible for the design.

Brother Kevin Crowley was understandably delighted that years hard work and fundraising have paid off. However, he sounded deep concerns as to how Irish society deals with the major problems of poverty, social exclusion in an age where more and more people have succumbed to drug addiction, alcoholism and homelessness.

Brother Crowley has spent his life caring for those most in need and feels Irish society has grown more and more cold and does not properly care for the most deprived, vulnerable and needy.

Despite the onset of the Celtic Tiger and subsequent economic boom, many in Irish society have been left behind and the less successful members have being pushed further to the margins. The problem of homelessness is worsening, not improving.

Brother Crowley said: “I am delighted that we have this new extension that gives us appropriate facilities to cater for the hundreds of people we deal with every day. If it was not for the generosity of an anonymous donor and the response by the government, we would not be here today and I wish to thank them both.”

“However, the measure of any society is how it treats its most vulnerable people, so we all must bear collective responsibility. It is right that everyone who has a safe warm bed at night should feel guilty. I believe that there is a need to take a practical, realistic look at the rules, regulations and options available for people who find it difficult to survive. While research, numbers and figures are important, I believe people seem more concerned with clinical statistics than with the level of care we are actually providing.”

The Capuchin Day Centre was founded in the late 1960s by Brother Kevin Crowley to relieve the hardship endured by homeless and vulnerable people. For over 35 years, the Capuchin Day Centre has been providing hot meals, food parcels, clothing and day care facilities for the homeless and needy. The Centre provides 1,800 hot dinners, 500 food parcels and 600 breakfasts every week to those who come through its doors.

The spirit of St Francis of Assisi inspires the work of the Capuchin Day Centre. The Centre welcomes all those in need of food aid who have no home or are socially excluded. The Centre aims to respect all those who come through its doors equally and provides a non-judgemental and caring response to their needs.

It costs over €500,000 per annum to run the Day Centre, which relies heavily on hard working volunteers who provide over 150,000 meals every year.