A homeless man has died in hospital after members of the public found his unconscious body and alerted emergency services.
Campaigners last night called on Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to activate the cold winter initiative in a bid to prevent any more deaths among the homeless.
The man in his late 30s was found at Foster Place in Dublin city at around 7am on Sunday morning.
Gardai confirmed the man later died in St. James hospital after pedestrians observed him.
Inner City Helping the Homeless (ICHH) have expressed their frustration at the lack of support from the government.
Anthony Flynn said: “This is yet another unacceptable loss of life within a broken service.
“The system that is homelessness is continuing to fail our most vulnerable in society.
“Not enough is being done to implement enough safe and secure accommodation for those who require it.
“We have a homelessness epidemic with on average 160 people sleeping rough every night, resulting in deaths in our streets.
“This can’t become normal or acceptable. The Minister must activate the cold winter initiative immediately and insure beds are available for all who want to access.
“My thoughts are with the man’s family at this tragic time.”
The tragic death comes after a photo of a homeless five-year-old boy was pictured eating his dinner off a cardboard sheet during the night.
Official figures by the Department of Housing last month revealed 10,338 people accessed emergency accommodation in August.
This number was made up of 6,490 adults and 3,848 children. The figures have remained above 10,000 for the past seven months.
Reacting to last night’s news another ICHH spokesman said: “It was a freezing cold night with ground frost across the city so to hear of another death on the streets of the country is another avoidable tragedy.
“How many people have to die our streets for this government to treat homelessness as an emergency?
“How many children have to eat on the streets as they live in emergency accommodation with no cooking facilities?
“What will it take for the government to take immediate emergency action?
“Winter is already here and we will see more deaths on our streets if the government continue to show political indifference to homelessness.”
A garda spokesman said a post mortem will be carried out on the homeless man.
He said: “Gardaí are investigating the sudden death of a man who passed away in St. James Hospital.
“Gardaí were alerted to the incident by passing pedestrians who observed the man unconscious at Foster Place at approximately 7am.
“He was removed to St James’ Hospital where he passed away.
“A post mortem will be conducted which will determine the course of the investigation.”
