New bylaws to prohibit “well-meaning” volunteer groups providing on-street food and personal services to Dublin’s homeless population will be drafted by Dublin City Council in the new year.
The “soup kitchen” bylaws aim to end the practice whereby charitable groups set up unregulated services, mostly providing hot food, to people queuing on the city’s streets.
The introduction of bylaws to regulate on-street charitable services was a recommendation of the Taoiseach’s Taskforce for Dublin published last October, which noted the model of on-street delivery in “high-profile locations risks the privacy, dignity and the safety of people using the service, attracts anti-social behaviour and drug dealing, and degrades the public realm”.
However, the council has long sought to end the practice. An independent report commissioned three years ago found a need to take “immediate action to address risks of on-street services”.
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The report by social policy consultant Mary Higgins found on-street services were undermining regulated services and exposing vulnerable people to “undignified” and “unsafe” conditions.
Groups “do not have the skills or experience to engage with people who are homeless, and there are examples of their interventions undermining the work of mainstream providers and possibly supporting people to remain on or return to the streets”, she said.
Queuing for food and eating “in full public view on the main streets of the city is inherently undignified and is potentially unsafe. No attention is paid to nutritional needs or food safety and the crowds that gather at the food stalls are thought to attract drug dealing and other unsavoury activity, putting people who are vulnerable at risk.”
Karl Mitchell, who represented the council on the Dublin taskforce, said the council had been in ongoing contact with volunteers ahead of drafting the bylaws. The street was “not the right place” to offer such services, but he said any new laws would be complemented by an increase in indoor services.
“We know that these are well-meaning people, doing this for the right reasons, but what’s really needed is better day services, to give people a more dignified response, indoors, where professional help can be on-hand if someone is having a crisis moment.”
Moving food services indoors also meant the appropriate equipment was used and that food health and safety regulations were adhered to, Mr Mitchell said.
“These bylaws shouldn’t be seen as a stick, the point of them is to make sure the end user is getting the most appropriate supports they can get, and make sure we don’t have large gatherings on some of our main streets, and all the consequences that come with that.”
While council officials would draft the bylaws, it would be up to the city councillors to decide whether to adopt them, he said.
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