Peter McVerry Trust, the national homeless and housing charity, has made available 50 emergency beds as part its extreme weather protocols ahead of Storm Lorenzo. The charity said it was working closely with the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) and has been in ongoing contact with local authorities in Kildare, and Meath.

Pat Doyle CEO of Peter McVerry Trust said “We have been liaising with the DRHE and local authorities since Storm Lorenzo was first flagged by Met Eireann. We have been working since the weekend to advance our state of preparedness for the storm, with our teams in Dublin as well as in the Mid East and Mid-West regions mobilising to support those in our services and in our housing.”

“We have taken a number of steps to ensure we can support additional people who may be at risk of sleeping rough. We have made 50 beds available in the Dublin region and these will be reviewed on Monday with the DRHE. We have put an additional Housing First team out in Dublin that will be engaging with people sleeping rough in Dublin to make them aware of the weather conditions and encourage them into shelter.”

Peter McVerry Trust will also ensure that transport supports are made available to anyone in need during Storm Lorenzo. Our existing supported temporary accommodation services in Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Louth are also putting measures in place to deal with possible power and water outages during the course of the storm.

Additionally, our Housing with Supports Team in Limerick is contacting and visiting all tenants today to ensure they are aware of the Status Orange alert due to take effect, and that they are prepared in case of power outages, leading to loss of heating or water supply.

Tenants of the Dublin Region Housing First project are also being engaged with to ensure that tenants are prepared for any possible impacts of Storm Lorenzo.

All our existing homeless services have 24-hour access and have contingency plans in place in the event of power outages to ensure any impact on people in our services are minimised.

Peter McVerry Trust last initiated its extreme weather emergency response, at the request of the DRHE, during Storm Emma in February and March 2018 and Storm Ophelia in October 2017.