Over 50 per cent of accommodation pledges for Ukrainian refugees have been cancelled
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Over 50 per cent of accommodation pledges for Ukrainian refugees have been cancelled
Words: Eva O’Beirne
12,000 pledges of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees have fallen through, either because the offer has been withdrawn or the owner cannot be contacted.
The Government was told on Wednesday evening that there could be 29,000-33,000 people seeking accommodation by the end of next month, and that people could be waiting for weeks before receiving accommodation unless thousands more beds are sourced.
Efforts to find emergency accommodation by the Government are ongoing, but the current solution to Ukrainian refugees arriving in Ireland is army-built camping sites and dormitories.
At present, there are 24,438 Ukrainians in Ireland with over a thousand being accommodated in emergency beds. This is out of a total of 2,325 such beds available across the State. Once hotels and B&Bs are approved, this will raise the number of beds available to 10,500.
Around 700 empty homes have been offered through the Red Cross to refugees. It is expected that around 200 will be filled by the end of the week.
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