Whatsover you do: Following death of homeless man, bishop turns church property into shelter

From The BBC:

A church building is to be used as a homeless shelter following an outcry over the death of a man on the street outside the Irish Parliament in Dublin.

The 41-year-old man was pronounced dead on a doorstep on Molesworth Street at about 08:00 local time on Monday.

The doorstep is just a few metres from the parliament and his death has been described as a “national disgrace”.

The Catholic archbishop of Dublin has now said he will make a church building available to shelter up to 40 people.

In a statement, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said that following consultations with staff, he was in a position “to make a substantial diocesan property available for emergency homeless accommodation in Dublin city centre”.

The statement said it was hoped the building could be made suitable before Christmas to house between 30 and 40 homeless people in the north inner city.

Archbishop Martin also called for a public summit to address “the immediate question of emergency accommodation for the homeless”

The archbishop’s statement followed widely reported remarks by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke, about the city’s ongoing problem with homelessness.

On Monday, Mr Burke told the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ: “When a man, a woman or child dies outside a national parliament due to homelessness it is automatically a national disgrace.”

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