THE Irish Housing Network is urging groups who may be intending to stage an Apollo House style occupation in Cork to avail of their expertise.
Apollo House where a group of campaigners have taken over a vacant building in Dublin city centre saying they want to convert it to accommodation for homeless people. Photo: Leah Farrell/ RollingNews.ie
The possibility of an occupation in Cork is growing with the organisers of the Dublin campaign, the Home Sweet Home group, vowing to take it nationwide.
A High Court judge last week ordered the 40 homeless people occupying Apollo House, an unused 10-storey property on Dublin’s Tara Street, to vacate the premises by January 11.
“If people in Cork were thinking about doing something similar we would really love to hear from them,” said Rosie Leonard of the Irish Housing Network, who support the Apollo House occupation on Tara Street in the middle of Dunlin city centre.
“I think it’s definitely something that if people in Cork needed to do, they should be given the public support that Apollo House received.
“I hope the people that do it reach out for support and see how it’s being done in other places and how they could do it themselves.
“In terms of Apollo House, we have no more plans to take any more buildings, we are very busy with the one that we have,” she added.
There are currently 98 properties that are listed in Cork city and county by the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).
“This is a nationwide crisis. There’s nothing to say it won’t happen elsewhere and 98 NAMA properties in Cork is a figure that needs to get out there to put pressure on the Government to actually use NAMA for the good of the people,” said Ms Leonard.
Speaking to the Evening Echo last week, Anti-Austerity Alliance TD for Cork North-Central Mick Barry said he believes that it is only a matter of time before a similar occupation happens in Cork.
“The occupation of Apollo House has captured the imagination of huge numbers of people, not just in Dublin but right across the country.
“The homelessness crisis is particularly sharp in Dublin but extends to Cork and many other towns and cities throughout the State,” said Mr Barry.
In late 2011, at the height of the recession, a building on Cork city’s Oliver Plunkett Street was taken over by a group of volunteers who vacated the premises a few months later.
An occupation of a NAMA property in Sligo last week is not thought to be linked to the Home Sweet Home campaign.
According to the Cork Simon Community, the amount of people sleeping rough in Cork city has risen 110% since 2011, with an average of 20 people per night sleeping on the city’s streets during the month of October.
Earlier this week Dermot Kavanagh of the Cork Simon Community told the Evening Echo that he hoped the Housing Minister Simon Coveney will pilot a repair-to-lease scheme that would see some of the 12,000 vacant homes in the city and county become occupied.
A GoFundMe page set up to fund the Apollo House occupation has surpassed €160,000 in donations in just under two weeks.
The group are appealing for volunteers to provide security, maintenance and cleaning services.
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