Meath public urged to support Drogheda Homeless Aid fundraising day

An organisation catering for the homeless in this region will be out on the streets of Navan this Friday 3rd July hoping that the people of Meath will rally to its cause.

Drogheda Homeless Aid caters for the needs of homeless persons in Meath and Louth. Its area of reach encompasses Co Louth but also increasingly in Meath - it has a hostel catering for 27 men at North Strand in Drogheda but also has a remit in Meath which doesn't have its own hostel. The organisation gets financial support from Louth County Council, Meath County Council and the HSE.

Although it is very grateful for the support it gets from the statutory bodies, by necessity it also must do heavy fundraising. Its financial problems have been exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. All fundraising had to be suspended for health safety reasons and it has had difficulty climbing back up the fundraising ladder. Although the 24/7 service caters mainly for men, it also has nine houses catering for families in the region, six of them in Co Meath.

The flag day on Friday 3rd July is very important to the organisatioin. It has its own staff and volunteers collecting but several Navan-based county councillors have volunteered to come out and shake the buckets for Dha.

The main collection base will be at Navan Shopping Centre, generously opened to DHA by the mangement there but our volunteers will be dotted throughout the town.

A spokesperson for Drogheda Homeless Aid said that the organisation had recently submitted applications for an increase in the bed night rate to the statutory bodies. Meath County Council has granted a a generous increase and a response from Louth County Council is awaited. “We have our own staff at DHA and they are aided by CE workers but every single person is needed in keeping a hostel running for 24 hours a day, seven days a week all year round. We hope that the people of Meath will respond generously.”