Councillors unhappy at being left out in cold
A senior council official said communicating with councillors must take second place to dealing with homeless emergencies in real time during cold weather spells.
Director of Services and Assistant Chief Executive Tony Larkin was reponding to complaints from councillors about not being kept fully informed by the housing department in relation to arrangments for accommodating homeless people.
Sinn Féin councillor Tom Forde said he still did not think councillors are being provided with enough information.
He complimented the council on making arrangements to have St. Joseph’s Community Centre serve as a homeless shelter during a freezing cold weekend ten days ago but said councillors should have been informed of these provisions when they were made, rather than having to hear it by word of mouth.
He asked how many rough sleepers were accommodated over the weekend and said he understood that the centre was no longer to be used for emergency accommodation.
He also asked if it was right to be directing homeless people to An Garda Síochána when they already have enough to be doing during Level 5 restrictions
‘It is important that we have an out-ofhours service’, said Cllr. Forde, while also calling on the local authority to use vacant council houses as emergency accommodation, to be run by an agency such as Focus Ireland or Respond.
Cllr. David Hynes asked why the old Garda Station on Roche’s Road couldn’t be used to accommodate homeless people during bad weather, instead of ‘being allowed to fall down’.
The Mayor of Wexford, Cllr. Leonard Kelly reminded him that it is an OPW building and said it will not be allowed to fall into dereliction.
Cllr. George Lawlor thanked housing officer Michelle Bridges Carley and her team for the ‘sterling work’ they did to ensure homeless people had accommodation during the cold weather spell and also gave credit to St. Joseph’s Centre.
He said he understood the council’s arrangement with St. Joseph’s was coming to an end.
Ms. Bridges Carley told Cllr. Forde that she was happy to talk to him after the meeting about individual homeless cases he had raised but this was not the appropriate forum to discuss them.
‘Can we have the commitment that we will be better informed in future. I just received a text saying that St. Joseph’s won’t be open tonight?’ said Cllr. Forde.
‘Can we not be informed through email (by the council) rather than through voluntary groups? Tom Enright (Chief Executive) said last week that there seems to be a lot of criticism of the council - maybe that’s where the criticism comes in, when the questions are not being answered.’
Mr. Larkin described it as a ‘fraught area’ and said there is a lot of concern in Wexford town about it at the moment with a lot of ‘well-meaning citizens’ trying to help.
He said it wasn’t possible to give detailed information in a public forum like this. Councillors were saying the public want answers to questions but the reality is they can’t have them.
‘In a general way,it will never be possible to be fully open with these matters. They are personal to the people involved. Only the housing officers have access to all the information.
‘We would always want to keep members as fully informed as possible but sometimes things have to be done in real time and the executive have to have the freedom to do what they need to do. And sometimes the councillors are brought up to date later.’
Mr. Larkin said the housing staff are doing their best and carrying out their work with great professionalism and the councillors need to back them.
‘We all back the staff’, said the Mayor, adding: ‘It’s just the communication that’s perhaps not as good as it should be and we should strive to do better.’
Mr. Larkin said communication wasn’t the thing required, it was the housing assistance provided to those who needed it.
Cllr. David Hynes said councillors are sometimes contacted late on a Friday when other people are out in their leafy suburbs and don’t get the call.
‘We need something in place. This is going to happen again, apart from episodes of cold weather, when people find themselves homeless.’
‘I would never reveal anyone’s details in a public situation. I would never break anyone’s confidentiality.’
Cllr. Lawlor asked if there was an alternative to St. Joseph’s Centre and Ms. Bridges Carley replied that there was but she did not wish to give any specifics.
Cllr. Forde asked how many people availed of St. Joseph’s over that weekend. Ms. Bridges Carley said she was waiting for the security firm to confirm numbers. ‘I have a good idea but I would prefer to give you the exact figure. I need confirmation on last night.’ ‘You must have an idea’, said Cllr. Forde. Mr. Larkin said he did not see any harm in saying how many.
Ms. Bridges Carley said three people stayed there on the Saturday night and one on the Sunday and there was capacity for 20 people.
The Mayor said ‘well done’ to the housing team on the forward planning to make St. Joseph’s available.