Additional beds for homeless in Wexford opened up during all weather types – ‘It’s not solely reliant on temperatures’

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

As winter approaches and those living on the streets of Wexford prepare for months of additional hardship, questions have been asked about the council’s criteria for making additional beds available for the homeless. Wexford County Council (WCC) initiates a crash bed facility for the homeless in the event of a severe weather alert being issued by Met Éireann but some remain unsure of how severe the weather needs to be for this to happen.

At the October meeting of WCC, Cllr Jim Codd asked for a more precise description of what constitutes severe weather.

“The adverse weather beds are only issued when temperatures reach zero,” he said. “But it doesn’t have to get to zero degrees to be cold, what about driving rain, storms, wind? Is this WCC policy or government policy?”

Explaining that the additional beds aren’t contingent on temperatures alone, director of services Carolyne Godkin said the council took all types of weather events into consideration.

“When we have adverse weather we make additional capacity, some in Ozanam House and more in another facility in town, those beds tend to be for those who don’t use our services at any other time,” she said. “There is an adverse weather protocol and we work off the Met Éireann alert system and its colour-coded events.

"We monitor the weather and where it’s deemed to be an additional risk to those who are vulnerable we will open up the facilities. Zero degrees is the temperature remit, but it doesn’t have to be zero if there’s driving rain or heavy fog, it’s a dynamic system and is not solely reliant on temperatures, it depends on a number of conditions.”