The activists who have set up a homeless shelter a Dublin office block have agreed to meet with its owners this week after being told to vacate the building.
A&L Goodbody solicitors sent the group a letter last week warning them that they wanted a meeting “with a view to agreeing an immediate and orderly evacuation” of the ten-storey Apollo House on Dublin’s Tara Street.
Irish Housing Network, one of the groups involved in the occupation, said that its solicitor was dealing with the issue but that it had no intention of vacating the property.
Celebrities including the singers Damien Dempsey and Glen Hansard, as well as Jim Sheridan, the director, and Saoirse Ronan, the actress, have backed the occupation.
Last night, more than 30 homeless people were expected to sleep in the first floor of the office block, which began receiving occupants this weekend. More homeless people will be accepted as the group opens up more floors of the building.
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It refused to allow media in at the insistence of the Irish Housing Network, which describes itself as a “radical” network of volunteers.
Organisers said that they were overwhelmed by the large number of donations from the public but have appealed to people not to donate food as they have enough.
All morning on Sunday, groups of people arrived by car and foot to donate bedding, bathroom supplies and food to Apollo House, which the activists have unofficially renamed as “Home Sweet Home”.
Volunteer security guards received the donations, which piled up inside the front gate. Other visitors offered to donate music sessions and murals to brighten up the building.
Brendan Ogle, a co-ordinator of the occupation, said that the group would provide a list of those controlling the impromptu homeless shelter, which had been requested by Mazars, the building’s receivers.
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Mr Ogle, an education officer with Unite, the trade union, said that its members had helped to make the building secure and safe.
Since the occupation began last Thursday, volunteers re-established light, heating and water in the building and added fridges and televisions at the weekend.
Yesterday, more than a dozen homeless people gathered outside the building requesting accommodation.
One group of five young homeless people said that they wanted to move to Apollo House because it was free of drugs and they were currently staying at a hostel where there were many heroin addicts.
Among them was Michael McDonagh, a traveller whose family originated in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, and who had lived with foster families in Dublin. “We are sent out of the hostel in the morning and we just walk around. We thought we could get in here but no chance. Maybe if more floors open,” he said. Mr McDonagh said that his family had suffered a tragedy as a result of heroin and did not want to share accommodation with drug users.
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Szics Emil Alexandru, originally from Romania, was one of the first to be granted a place to stay in Apollo House on Saturday. He said that he did not sleep in the building and spent the night in an internet cafe and on the streets and came back to Apollo House on Sunday morning.
“It is really a great place. They have so much food there, anything you want is there. They have showers, they have a gym now. I like this place very much,” he said.
Richard Boyd Barrett, TD for People Before Profit, and Jim Higgins, a Socialist Party TD, turned up on Sunday morning to show their support but could not gain entry. Mr Boyd Barrett placed his name on the volunteer list. “Nobody is saying that this is the solution to the homeless problem but it’s opening up places and forcing a new debate,” he said.