Motion put forward for book of condolence for homeless deaths as #MyNameis campaign tours
An emergency motion has been put forward to open a book of condolences for three homeless people who died in the past week.
Councillor Christy Burke, representing Dublin's North Inner City, put forward the motion ahead of this evening's meeting of the City Council.
It comes as the homeless charity, Inner City Helping Homeless, took the #MyNameis campaign around Ireland to garner support for the campaign against child homelessness.
The campaign is to raise awareness for the 3,000 homeless children in Ireland.
They also heard expert testimony from Dr Rory Hearne and Dr Mary Murphy about the negative impact homelessness is having on children in emergency accommodation.
They said: "We have personally spoken to families in emergency accommodation and hear stories of children's school grades dropping as a result of homelessness.
"We hear of small children who are developing slower simply due to a lack of space in a hotel/B&B room. We hear of children who aren't allowed to bring friends over to play.
"We saw the story and video of "David" who has cerebral palsy and has to use his walker to get up the steps into the B&B he is staying in as its not wheelchair accessible."
The volunteers were in Cork, Waterford and Wexford over the last 36 hours and got lots of response from the public.
They were also at a candlelight vigil in Cork last night for the homeless people that lost their lives over the past week.
ICHH CEO, Anthony Flynn, said: "We are working towards creating a conversation about homelessness, specifically child homelessness, right across the country.
"The response has been phenomenal over the last couple of days and the campaign is highlighting the real face of homelessness, children.
"We need to address this crisis head on and by creating a conversation and awareness among the people of Ireland we hope that we can force the government to sit up and listen. We have seen four deaths within the homeless community in the last seven days and each of those people has a name, a family and a story."
He finished by urging people to support the #MyNameis campaign on social media.
