Family put wheels in motion to house homeless people on double deck bus

A KINGSCOURT family who began feeding the homeless in Dublin city centre during lockdown have come up with a novel idea to transform a double decker bus into individual sleeping pods for eight homeless people.

Sonya and Gerard MacMahon, along with their three children Courtney (26), Jason (21) and Katie (19), began feeding 200 people a night in the city centre during the pandemic and from this 'Help our Homeless' was born. With the help of other volunteers, it has grown to also include an outreach service with a van out seven nights.

Sonya spoke of how heartbreaking it is to leave the homeless behind freezing in their tents and they have come up with a plan to provide eight sleeping pods in a double decker bus. They have launched a DIY SOS like appeal for local tradespeople to come forward to help transform it with a number of electricians already pledging their support. They are still appealing for other tradespeople like plumbers, solar panel professionals and others to get in touch if they can help.

The bus, which was donated by a local person who wishes to remain anonymous, had been parked on the Main Street in Kingscourt to raise awareness of the project and will be moved this week for the work to start. Sonya said they got a fantastic reaction locally and lots of support for the idea.

Once the bus is completed, Sonya says the plan is to engage with Fingal Co Council for a piece of waste ground where it could be parked and the second phase of their plan is to transform a shipping container into a kitchen and eating/living area, similar to a project they saw in Bristol.

Sonya, who owns the 'Little Buds' florist in Kingscourt, told how her work with the homeless began during the first lockdown when she put up a Facebook post for people to make sandwiches saying they would deliver them to the homeless in Dublin and got a great response. This quickly grew from one night a week to four to five nights a week feeding 200.

"After lockdown ended, we went back to three nights a week at the GPO, serving about 200 a night. Then about a year-and-a-half ago, I decided I wanted to do more for the homeless with an outreach programme. We have a van that goes out at night around the north inner city. We cover Finglas, Ballymun, Glasnevin, go by Fair View Park, St Anne's Park, Howth, and the beaches at Dollymount.

She explained that one van still goes to the GPO two to three nights a week and the outreach van is out seven nights week visiting people in tents.

"Some of them are too afraid to come in to the city centre, because of anti-social behaviour or they don't want to leave their tents, in case their stuff is gone when they come back. We go around the tents and make sure everyone is ok and give them a hot dinner and a sandwich and a drink and basically we just say, how are you today."

The food they give out is all donated and Sonya said they are very lucky to have Swift Fine Foods in Lough Egish providing dinners and Carleton Cakes in Cootehill supplying them with cakes and buns.

It is a big commitment for the MacMahon family but Sonya says they could never walk away from it.

"If I'd known what I was starting as a family, I don't think we would have done it because it really is so time consuming, a lot of energy goes into it. At the same time we could never walk away from it.

She said it is heartbreaking to leave them in their tents and a lot won't go into a hostel and don't feel safe there.

"We came up with the idea of accommodating eight people on a bus. The first eight will be women and we will work with them to get them back into society and into accommodation and jobs. Then we will take on eight males and rotate the bus that way. The bus will sleep eight people in individual little pods with their own bed, TV and electricity point where they can close the door and be safe."