Council chief criticised for comments about homeless people sleeping in tents 

Dublin City Council chief executive Owen Keegan has come under fire for saying that rough sleepers should not be allowed to sleep in tents. File Picture: PA

The chief executive of Dublin City Council has been criticised for comments he made about homeless people sleeping in tents in the capital.

Owen Keegan said people should not be allowed to sleep in tents and that the capital has a "perception issue" along with what he called "low-level" anti-social behaviour.

"There are other aspects, like the proliferation of tents, and I’ll get into trouble for saying this, but we don’t think people should be allowed sleep in tents when there’s an abundance of supervised accommodation in hostels. 

We’ve had up to 100 or 150 beds available every night for homeless people, and we would have thought that it’s not unreasonable that in those situations, if you’re homeless, you’d go into a professionally managed hostel.

“And that adds to that perception of an edginess about the city,” he told Kieran Cuddihy on Monday's The Hard Shoulderon Newstalk.

Homelessness advocate and campaigner Fr Peter McVerry said Mr Keegan's analysis was correct, but "simplistic".

"We have to ask why some people are not going into homeless shelters and the basic reason is that they feel safer sleeping on the street. While much of the homeless accommodation is of excellent standard, much of it is shared accommodation."

Drug use

Fr McVerry said some users of shared accommodation have reported either having their belongings stolen and others being faced with drug use. He said many of these people had been either recovering addicts who resumed drug use in shelters or had started their drug use in shelters.

Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin called on Mr Keegan to retract his comments, saying the existence of rough sleepers in tents is itself a criticism of housing policy.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin called on Mr Keegan to retract his comments, saying the existence of rough sleepers in tents is itself a criticism of housing policy. Picture: PA

"The comments are very unfortunate and I think they're regrettable and he should retract them. There are very good reasons people don't go into emergency accommodation and I know because I talk to these people.

So for example, people who have been through addiction recovery, and who are now clean and want to stay clean, cannot go into low-threshold, emergency accommodation, where they're sharing rooms with people who are still active drug users. That's not possible. 

"Likewise, for example, people who experience mental health issues, or who have had negative experiences, again in low-threshold, and dorm-style or shared accommodation and hostels don't feel comfortable there.

"We know what the solution to that is. It's about ensuring the end of dorm-style accommodation and we ramp up housing first tenancies for homeless people. So people don't have to make the choice of going into a high-risk hostel or taking the risk of sleeping on the streets. 

"There is nobody who chooses to sleep rough or in a tent, nobody makes that choice, people feel like they have no other choice. And that is not a criticism of the providers of emergency accommodation. It's a criticism of Government policy."