Religious congregation to donate €5 million to homeless people
Howard Lake | 8 April 2019 | News
The Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin has announced it will donate €5 million for a housing initiative for homeless people.
The donation will fund the building of 25 homes by homelessness charity the Peter McVerry Trust.
The donation followed consideration at the centre about how it could best respond to the homelessness crisis, according to its founder Brother Kevin Crowley. He told RTÉ Today that he and his colleagues had found the rise in the number of families needing its services “truly shocking”, adding that “it troubles us greatly that children in our country have nowhere to call home.”
The Capuchin Day Centre helps around 300 people a day by providing food, clothing, showers and medical attention.
Brother Crowley added that “after careful consideration and advice, we decided to fund a housing initiative via Peter McVerry Trust to secure a minimum of 25 housing units for those in greatest need”.
Charities Regulator advice
The Centre also took advice from the Charities Regulator to ensure that the donation was made appropriately and complied with best practice.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, Brother Kevin said that “very generous donations” from the public over the last year had enabled the centre to make the €5 million donation, adding that the Pope’s visit last year had been “a huge boost”.
Peter McVerry Trust CEO Pat Doyle said the money for its development programme was the single biggest donation ever received by the Trust. He said it will help to take people out of bed and breakfasts and hotels.
The Peter McVerry Trust had an income of nearly €25 million in 2017, of which €9 million was from donations.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.