Five homeless families at risk of eviction from a hotel used for emergency accommodation are being told they will not be turfed out on to the street.
Lynam’s Hotel on Dublin’s O’Connell Street is in receivership and the owners have been told it must be vacant by August 1.
Up to 11 families were being put up in the hotel under emergency accommodation and five remain.
Two families were due to leave on Friday but Dublin City Council said they turned down offers of alternative arrangements in other hotels in the capital.
In a statement the city council said: “The Dublin Region Homeless Executive and Dublin City Council are currently in negotiations in relation to Lynam’s Hotel. All families have been offered suitable alternative accommodation.”
It is understood families are remaining in the hotel while negotiations on extending their stay continue.
A council spokeswoman said they had private talks with each family individually in recent weeks to try to reach a deal on new accommodation and that efforts would continue.
One family complained that the offer of new accommodation, including for their two children with asthma, was a basement room and a room beside a bus stop and where people smoked.
Lynam’s has been under the control of receiver Aiden Murphy of Crowe Horwath since last September.
The loans taken out on the property were transferred to Nama but it has no control over how the property is managed or the receivership.
A High Court order in April cleared the way for the receiver to take vacant possession of the buildings on August 1.
It is understood negotiations also involve extending the deadline.
A spokesman for Nama said the city council was told there would be no-one running the hotel as a business from that date and other arrangements should be made for people in emergency accommodation.
Thomas Pringle, Independent TD for Donegal, raised the plight of families in the hotel.
He said one woman and her 18-month-old daughter were made homeless in March this year and have moved between hotels and B&Bs since then.
Another family is forced to take their children to the suburbs in Dublin 15 every morning to get to school.
There were no cooking or laundry facilities for the families to use in the hotel.
Dublin City Council said 939 families are in emergency accommodation in the capital, including more than 600 in hotels.
