A homeless man is being forced to spend the nights sleeping in his car after efforts to find him emergency accommodation in a B&B failed due to Meath County Council block booking all the rooms there to house Ukranian refugees.
Aontu East Meath representative Peter Whelan told Meath Live, ‘I was approached for assistance by a man who had recently become homeless and I went to someone who runs a B&B alongside their pub business and was told they had nothing available.
‘When I pressed the issue I was shocked to discover the Council had block booked the entire room allocation for Ukranians and despite the fact the rooms were actually vacant the owner couldn’t allow this man to stay.
‘I am currently trying to establish whether or not the Council is paying for empty rooms or whether they wait until the rooms are occupied before payment starts.
‘Either way this man is still sleeping in his car when there are empty rooms in premises quite close to him, and surely that is not right.’