The boss of the  Peter McVerry Trust homeless charity has appealed to owners of vacant or derelict properties, of which there are many in Drogheda, to consider allowing them to be used for social housing.

He was speaking  after figures released yesterday by the Department of Housing, show the number of people recorded as homeless rose to 9,099 in the last week of November.  

Pat Doyle, CEO of Peter McVerry Trust, which has offices in Laurence Street, Drogheda, said they were disappointed that the number of people in need of emergency accommodation continued to rise.

“Peter McVerry Trust continues to work with our colleagues in the DRHE and local authorities to make sure we offer additional emergency accommodation to cope with the numbers in need”Mr. Doyle said.

“Peter McVerry Trust is also working to ensure that we ramp up delivery of new social housing opportunities to provide pathways out of homelessness for young people.”

“We urgently need to secure more one-bedroom homes for people impacted by homelessness and Peter McVerry Trust would appeal to the owners of vacant or derelict properties to contact us to see how we can re-use those properties for social housing.”

“We would also encourage the developers who are progressing small scale apartment schemes which contain one and two-bedroom apartments to make contact with us to see if we can acquire some of those units for social housing to help people exit homelessness.”