Council to house homeless families at former B&B 

CORK County Council is to house eight homeless families in the former B&B known as MacLiam Lodge, on Clonakilty’s Western Road.

Housing officer MacDara Ó h’Icí told members of the West Cork Municipal District (WCMD) last week that the pilot project should meet the short-term needs of these families, who are currently living in emergency accommodation.

A Cork Co Council spokesperson failed to answer directly a query if MacLiam Lodge had full planning permission for all its buildings at the time of the purchase, but instead said: ‘The Council does not have concerns in relation to the planning permissions for the buildings.’

At the recent WCMD meeting, Mr Ó h’Icí  said the Council is looking at other buildings throughout the county to meet the needs of the 146 people identified as homeless, and the 32 families also living in emergency homeless accommodation.

‘These are countywide figures. We don’t have a breakdown for West Cork,’ Mr Ó h’Icí stated.

The Council – with the support of the Department of Housing – has purchased MacLiam Lodge, which is beside the South of Ireland Petroleum base at Clonakilty’s Western Road, and will provide supported accommodation for families.

The facility, which is owned by the Council, will provide supported accommodation solutions to families who are homeless and may have special needs. And it will operate in a way that will prepare famines for more permanent accommodation.

He said the services will be delivered on behalf of the Council by Good Shepherd Cork, who have a 50-year record of successfully providing this type of accommodation and assistance to women and families in the Cork region.

The facility will provide eight family rooms and support services and will be staffed 24/7.

It will have communal rooms including cooking and laundry rooms on the same footprint of the existing building. Some non-structural works will be required, mainly rewiring and internal fittings, he added.

Mr Ó h’Icí said suitably qualified staff will be recruited for the facility and the local staff will be part of the wider Good Shepherd organisation.

He said the eight families in the Clonakilty facility will be referred to the hub by Cork County Council and will come from within the county area.

Mr Ó h’Icí said these people are not on the Council’s housing list. They are people who are in emergency, homeless accommodation, such as B&Bs and hotels, which are not ideal, especially for children.

‘What you are bringing here is welcome news, but we are going to have to build more houses to meet the needs of the people of West Cork,’ said Cllr Joe Carroll (FF).

Mr Ó h-Icí agreed that more housing is required. He said the Council is looking for land for house building, and more acquisitions as well.

Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) complained that councillors don’t know what is happening in relation to the allocation and official opening of two approved housing body developments in Bantry.

‘It is great to have this new housing for the homeless,’ said Cllr Caroline Cronin (FG), but Cllr Karen Coakley (Ind) said she considered the number of people who have been identified as homeless in the county to be ‘frightening’.

Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy (FF) welcomed the development but he questioned how An Bord Pleanála could have turned down a 56-unit housing development in Bantry recently.

Mr Murphy said An Bord Pleanála refused local developer Aiden McCarthy permission to construct 42 houses and 12 apartments in three blocks on a 2.6-hectare site in Dromleigh South and Seskin.

The board supported an appeal by several local residents who said vehicular and pedestrian entrances to local schools, Bantry Community College and Gaelscoil Bheanntraí, as well as to the HSE primary care centre, converged at the access point to the proposed development.

Cllr Murphy also questioned how land zoned for development was removed by the planning regulator saying: ‘You would wonder sometimes that there is no joined-up thinking – the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

‘We are getting blockages from people living within the pale.’