Peter McVerry Trust and Space Engagers Launch New Empty Homes Mapping App

Peter McVerry Trust, the national housing and homeless charity, has partnered with Dublin based social enterprise, Space Engagers, to use tech to map Dublin’s empty buildings.

The new online mapping tool will be launched by Twitter Co-Founder, Biz Stone, at a special event this afternoon in Twitter’s EMEA Headquarters in Dublin.

The project, named Reusing Dublin, hopes to tap local knowledge on empty buildings across Dublin in an effort to alleviate the homeless crisis. It’s hoped that buildings identified by members of the public can be reused to provide social housing solutions.

Co–Founder of Space Engagers Philip Crowe, said “We believe locals know their communities better than anyone else and that this local knowledge can play a key role in turning empty buildings back into homes.”

Francis Doherty, Head of Communications at Peter McVerry Trust, said “At Peter McVerry Trust we see empty buildings as spaces with the potential to transform the lives of people impacted by homelessness in Dublin. We’ve been working on empty and derelict buildings for a few years now, and we know from this experience that we can create high quality homes much faster and cheaper than traditional new build construction.”

“The Reusing Dublin project is something that we hope will encourage members of the public to share their knowledge of their community and city by logging empty buildings. The more empty buildings we can identify and reuse, the more homes we can provide to people impacted by homelessness in Dublin.”

Reusing Dublin is available on the Space Engagers app to download for free from the app store or playstore. There is also a project website www.reusingdublin.ie where people can also log information and see properties that have been added.