Two homeless men perish in capital as Government urged to bring end to crisis

TWO homeless men who perished on the streets of the capital had both spent time in emergency accommodation before their deaths.

A man in his 50s, named locally as Michael McCann, was found dead in a tent in Ranelagh near one of the country’s most prestigious private schools within Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy’s constituency at 1.30pm on Tuesday.

A Lithuanian man in his 30s died in the Mater Hospital on Monday morning after he was taken from Chancery Street, near the Four Courts, on Sunday evening.

Gardaí said both incidents were being classed as “sudden deaths” and more would not be known until postmortems had been completed.

The Dublin Homeless Regional Executive (DHRE) said: “We would like to express condolences to the family and friends [of each man] who very sadly passed away.”

Referring to the Ranelagh death, it said: “This man was accessing homeless services since 2010 and was placed in emergency accommodation, including temporary supported accommodation, on a number of occasions.” The executive said outreach teams had “engaged” with the homeless man on “many occasions”.

“Unfortunately, support services were unable to progress this man to a more permanent housing solution after he left his last placement.”

The DHRE said the Lithuanian man had also been accessing homeless services since 2013 and he had also been placed in emergency accommodation, including temporary supported accommodation on a “number of occasions”.

He has not been identified until his family can be informed.

Independent Dublin city councillor Christy Burke said the reason why some homeless people chose to sleep rough was because they didn’t want to live in emergency accommodation.

Mr Burke, who remembered feeding the Lithuanian man, said: “My condolences go to both these men’s families and I hope the Independents in the Dáil now start putting real pressure on the Government to answer this crisis.”