Concerns over drug use at the Good Shepherd Centre Centre in Kilkenny

Concerns were raised over drug use at the Good Shepherd Centre in Kilkenny City at a recent meeting of the Housing Strategic Committee.

Following a presentation on the local authority’s homeless services policy a number of councillors raised the issue of the availability of drugs at the hostel.

Councillor Andrew McGuinness said that there were far too many cases where people are leaving the facility because they want to avoid drug use and asked if they are deemed ineligible for emergency accommodation.

35 houses earmarked for Affordable Housing Scheme in Kilkenny estate

“There are people who come through addiction and walk out of the Good Shepherd Centre because drugs are offered and they want to get away from that temptation. Are they deemed ineligible for emergency accommodation,” he asked and also queried as to whether they could be accommodated in the Hoban Hotel, which has a number of rooms allocated to Kilkenny County Council for use as emergency accommodation.

“These cases present too often,” he added.

Cllr Martin Brett reiterated the issue and said that he was aware of a number of people who do not want accommodation in The Good Shepherd Centre because of ‘the availability of drugs there’.

“There are a number of people who don’t want to go down to the Good Shepherd Centre because they feel that because of the availability of drugs that they will fall under the hammer. Will that fear constitute them not been eligible for emergency accommodation.

Cllr Eugene McGuinness said that there was ‘a massive availability of drugs’ at the centre.

“If you are trying to recover and walk out is it deemed that you refused emergency accommodation,” he asked.

Director of Services, Mary Mulholland told the meeting that there is not a dry hostel in Kilkenny.

“Previously people who were in live addiction were not placed in emergency accommodation. We have to provide them with a service. There is no funding for a purpose built facility. The availability of drugs is on every street in Kilkenny. They don’t have to go to the Good Shepherd Centre,” she said.

“Not all of the people in the Good Shepherd Centre are addicts. There are people who are sober and are in the centre because of financial reasons. It is about engaging with their key worker and staying away from centre people,” she said.

Cllr Eugene McGuinness remarked that it is ‘a shame there is not treatment facility in the Good Shepherd Centre’.

Councillor Denis Hynes asked that a presentation be made by the Kilkenny Voluntary Housing Association to the committee in the future.

A proposed change to the local authority’s Homeless Services Policy was outlined at the meeting and stated that ‘persons will not be provided with emergency accommodation where they have voluntarily left accommodation’. A draft proposal of the plan will be brought before Kilkenny County Council for discussion at a later date.

Under the government’s Housing First policy housing is offered to tackle homelessness and it is aimed at people who have been rough sleeping and long term users of emergency hostels with high needs around mental health and addiction.