50 homeless families helped as Mater Dei opens its doors

With space for 50 families, the new Crosscare centre at the Mater Dei Institute in Dublin has opened and is beginning to house vulnerable people.

This follows the move of DCU students to St Patrick’s College, leaving the space open to be used as emergency temporary accommodation run by the Catholic charity.

The project is part of a Government initiative to move homeless families into nine ‘family hubs’ across Dublin, in an effort to minimise the reliance on hotels.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said: “In the past few weeks, Crosscare’s family hub on the former Mater Dei campus has begun providing new dignified emergency accommodation for families.

“This is still temporary accommodation, but in a short space of time, Crosscare has already helped a significant number of these families to move out into homes of their own.”

Archbishop Martin said that for 75 years Crosscare has “mirrored the loving kindness of Jesus Christ”.

The annual collection for Crosscare took the place of the Share collection at all Masses in the Archdiocese of Dublin last weekend.