Dublin homeless agency to review Kevin Barry House death

The Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) is to conduct its own review into the recent killing of a man in a flat managed by the Peter McVerry Trust homeless charity.

A Garda investigation is currently underway into 28-year-old Tony Dempsey’s death, with the Peter McVerry Trust last week announcing it would conduct an internal review into the case.

The DRHE, which co-ordinates State homeless services across the four Dublin local authorities, is now also to carry out an independent review of the matter, sources said.

Dempsey was found dead in a flat in Kevin Barry House on Coleraine Street in Dublin’s north inner city on September 12th. Gardaí believe he died as a result of a violent assault, with his remains laying in the flat for around a week before the alarm was raised.

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A woman who had previously been homeless had been housed in the property by the Peter McVerry Trust under its Housing First policy, which provides housing to rough sleepers or those in long term homeless services.

In recent months the tenancy had broken down, with the flat being used by a group of people to take drugs, leading local residents to make several complaints to Dublin City Council (DCC) about the property.

The Peter McVerry Trust has said its staff had visited the property daily in the days prior to the discovery of the body, but had seen “no indication or evidence that someone was deceased at the property or in the vicinity”.

The charity had placed the woman into the ground-floor property more than 18 months ago, as part of an agreement with DCC. It is understood in recent months staff had been intensively engaging in the case after it became clear the woman had lost control of the property. There is no suggestion she was involved in the man’s death.

A spokesman for DCC said the tenant had been issued verbal and written warnings over the problems in the home. The council said that, since July, staff in the Peter McVerry Trust had been “actively encouraging the tenant to surrender the tenancy with a view to commencing a new tenancy on a fresh footing”.

The charity is to conduct an internal review into the case to establish what happened and identify potential lessons to be learned. It is understood the review is likely to be conducted by a senior executive in the homeless charity. The DRHE did not respond to queries about the scope of its own review.

A Garda spokesman on Tuesday said there had not been any arrests made over the killing, but investigations were ongoing.