Homeless living at the doorsteps of Galway’s County Hall

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – As temperatures plummeted this week, a number of people continued to sleep rough at several locations in the city centre – including outside the door of the County Council’s headquarters on Prospect Hill.

Assistant CEO of COPE Galway, Martin O’Connor, told the Galway City Tribune that while the Cold Weather Response – providing emergency beds for those sleeping on the streets – was operational and had beds available, several people opt not to use the service for a variety of reasons.

Yesterday morning (Thursday), there were five people sleeping rough on city centre streets, he said, while there was likely to be others that were not ‘visible’ to the homelessness outreach team.

“We have a good level of engagement with those sleeping rough at the County Buildings. There are Cold Weather Response beds available to anyone. There is no problem with spaces – there’s more than enough beds available.

“The group at County Hall shrinks and swells. Many of them are known to the services,” he said, adding that prior to the return of stringent Covid measures in October, the number had gone up to anything between 10 and 12 people per night.

Several of those who were sleeping rough were migrants and had engaged with the services, said Mr O’Connor, and thanks to efforts by COPE in conjunction with the City Council and other organisations, some had been able to be repatriated, provided they had somewhere safe to return to.
This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of the story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.