Glen Hansard has been spearheading the Home Sweet Home campaign against homelessness.
In the beginning, he and fellow Irish stars took over the NAMA-owned Apollo House illegally for homeless people to stay in temporarily.
Yesterday, on the 12th of January, the remaining Apollo House residents and volunteers vacated the building, as per the government’s request.
Apollo House: Residents have vacated Apollo House | VIPIRELAND.COM
Glen Hansard spoke to Ray D’arcy on his RTÉ Radio 1 show about what it was like to leave Apollo house.
“Leaving Apollo House this morning was a difficult thing for us to do, and there was a lot of tears and emotion and people haven’t slept in a few days because everyone is feeling very insecure, to be honest”.
He continued, “The Apollo House set-up has raised the bar. The reason we went in was because there weren’t enough beds in the system at that time.
Since then enough beds have come in the system and that’s fair enough, the minister and the government can take credit for that”.
Help: Glen and other Irish celebrities played free gigs in order to create awareness | VIPIRELAND.COM
Glen also admitted that he didn’t know what he was doing at the beginning, “I have to admit that I was completely out of my depth.
“We all got a crash course in education in the homeless sector since we went in.”
The Oscar-winning singer believes that the Apollo House movement raised the standard of the homeless sector.
“The problem is that the standard we had set in Apollo House, 24-hour single room accommodation, we created a home atmosphere. We’ve got nothing but respect for the other homeless services.”
Hozier: Hozier performed alongside Glen at one of the awareness rallies | VIPIRELAND.COM
The singer also talked about where some residents went after leaving Apollo House, “The Peter McVerry Trust came and they processed many people through to their services.
“Fair play to them, they were offering six-month beds, they were offering 24-hour access, so the whole standard of the homelessness sector has raised partly, if not completely, due to the Apollo House occupation.”
