Sir, – Banks repossessing rental properties, landlords increasing rents and the Government’s refusal to raise rent supplement have seen many families dumped on the streets. The “short-term” solution, which in many cases is far from short term, is hotel rooms rented by the local council to house families.
Some of these hotels, with full knowledge of the councils, give new “guests” a list of rules which, if broken, will see the guests back on the streets within a day.
Rules such as you cannot use the front door, so use the side entrance. You cannot use the bar or restaurant facilities. You can only approach reception between 9am and 11am. You cannot have visitors to the hotel. You cannot park your car in the hotel carpark. A curfew of 11pm is imposed, and so on. This is a new version of apartheid and is shameful. – Yours, etc,
CONAN DOYLE,
Pococke Lower,
Kilkenny.
Sir, – The homeless crisis took another turn for the worse when a young family, with three children under the age of five, was found sleeping on the streets in the centre of Dublin (“Family with three children sleeping rough in Dublin”, August 11th). We’re calling on the Government to act immediately on this crisis. It needs to act with urgency so that no more families find themselves in this situation. – Yours, etc,
ANNE MARIE BUTLER,
Uplift,
Dame Street,
Dublin 2.
For a full list of the 2,850 signatories to the letter from Uplift, see https://uplift.ie/homelessness/