Council should help Athlone group feeding homeless

Volunteers who are feeding the homeless in Athlone deserve the support of Westmeath County Council, members insisted at their monthly meeting recently.

Cllr Frankie Keena said that these “really good volunteers” are being helped by local businesses, “but we need to help, maybe by giving them a shelter from which to provide the food”.

He was supported by Cllr Paul Hogan who suggested that the council needed to update its Homelessness Action Plan website which he claimed was 10 years out of date. There is no mention of Housing for All or Rebuilding Ireland, he said. He asked when the Homeless Action Plan would be presented to the members.

Mark Keaveney, director of services, said it was “new” to him that this group was delivering food to the homeless in Athlone, but he undertook to look into the matter.

He said the Homeless Action Plan is under development at the moment and a staff member has been recently appointed to “lead out on it”.