Shelter donated for city homeless

A portable shelter has been left in a public carpark in Londonderry to house street drinkers.

The shelter was left in a car park in Foyle Street on Thursday night in response to calls to help people living rough in the city.

Last month a man died of hypothermia while living in public toilets in Derry city centre.

The businessman who donated it did not want to be named, but said he felt he had to do something.

"I know the DoE or someone might move it, but if they move it , I'm just going to put it somewhere else," he said.

"It's not a long term solution, but if it's one night and it goes to two nights and three nights, it's going to be beneficial," he said.

Martin McLaughlin was among five people who slept in the portable shelter on Thursday night.

"Believe you me, this is a godsend, this is a godsend.

"How can you lie under bushes every night of the week, things crawling over you, and you don't know who's going to land in on top of you?" he said.

Margaret Anderson's son Eamon died while living rough a month ago.

"People just walk over the top of them. They don't realise they are human beings," she said.

"I do believe if Eamon had got accommodation the street wouldn't have taken him as quick," she said.

The mayor of Derry, Gerald Diver, has said he will convene a special meeting to discuss the problem of homelessness in the city at the earliest opportunity.

On Thursday a police inspector warned that street drinkers living rough in Derry would die this winter unless something was done.

Homeless people are living rough under duvets in the John Street area of the city.

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