Plans to convert a vacant office building on Dublin city’s Mount Street into a “very large” emergency accommodation hub for families have sparked further backlash among residents.
The former headquarters of the Irish League of Credit Unions, which was put up for sale in June 2024, guiding at €9.5 million, was earmarked to accommodate asylum seekers earlier this year.
The move was met with a backlash from local residents and business owners at the time, who were reeling from a prior build-up of more than 200 tents at the International Protection Office (IPO) amid a shortage of accommodation for asylum seekers.
The tents were removed in a multiagency operation in May 2024, though barricades subsequently erected to discourage further tents remain around the IPO.
READ MORE
The plans, however, appear to have been abandoned by Lower Mount Street Accommodation Services in favour of a 72-bed short-term emergency accommodation hub, for which it has sought planning permission.
The development of the building at 33-41 Lower Mount Street would offer “essential” accommodation for families who “unexpectedly lose their homes, often due to situations such as eviction or financial difficulty”, according to planning documents.
Lower Mount Street Accommodation Services, a company established in August 2024, said there is an “acute identified need for this type of accommodation in Dublin city”, adding there is just one other similar facility within a 750m radius.
“It is therefore considered that the proposed development will not create an undue concentration of such uses within this area,” it said.
However, this has been disputed by the Mount Street Residents Group, which described the project as a “further example of attempts to overconcentrate homelessness and associated services (including for asylum seekers and refugees) in Dublin city centre”.
A planning objection report prepared by BPS Planning and Development Consultants for the group says the area has been “under pressure” from the provision of emergency facilities for international protection applicants, “or lack thereof”, in recent years.
The objection says the proposal raises concerns for adjoining and surrounding properties and businesses, as it may “exacerbate issues which have arisen on this street” in recent years.
“Residents and businesses were forced to live with tents and metal barriers in their neighbourhood for over 18 months,” it reads, adding that the group has expressed “significant concerns” about the proposal, citing the impact on the local community of over 800 residents.
“Introducing a new facility in an area already hosting similar services could set a precedent for clustering homeless accommodations, potentially overwhelming local resources and altering the socio-economic character of neighbourhoods,” the objection reads.
The objection, which also raised concerns that the development could depreciate the value of properties in the area, argued that Lower Mount Street Accommodation Services “appears to view this as a business project to be managed like a student accommodation building or suchlike.
“Our client considers that the area has already played its part in the asylum and refugee accommodation crisis. They are opposed to allowing the area to bear the burden of management problems pertaining to this issue.”
