Plans to build to convert a vacant community centre into a homeless shelter have been delayed following legal disputes by residents.

The centre in The Liberties was scheduled to be completed as part of this year’s Winter Initiative. Plans to open the hostel have now been suspended and the conflict will not be resolved until a case opens on January 24^th. According to RTÉ Local residents have been angry about the original closure of the community centre and held a number of protests following news that it was to be used instead for homeless services. Residents also say that the area currently has a high number of services and drug treatment facilities. Two other hostels; a 70 bed hostel on Ellis Quay and a 75 bed facility on Little Britain St, will open as planned this Friday. Earlier this year, the number of families homeless in Dublin surpassed 1000 for first time. these figures correlate with the national figures that were released this afternoon as 6,709 people in Ireland are now without a home around the country. Focus Ireland said that while it's helping at least one family to move on from homelessness every day this year, the reality is that inadequate prevention strategies result in another family becoming homeless on that very same day. They also stressed that the crisis will only be ended when more action is taken to cut the constant number of families – and single people – becoming homeless every month. Director of Advocacy, Mike Allen, said: “We need to stop the constant flow of families and single people becoming homeless. Our frontline staff have seen first-hand that the two key reasons families are becoming homeless is one, landlords are selling up and getting out of the business, and two, rising rents. Both these issues are within the power of the government to tackle and while they have taken some actions they have clearly not done enough, fast enough .” He added: “We have to remember that we are not just talking about figures and statistics here. We must always highlight the human face behind each figure. Behind every figure is a person…a family..a man, a woman, a child…each of them who are suffering the ongoing trauma of being homeless every day.”