Digital Hub to provide winter refuge for homeless in Dublin

4 Nov 2015

17 companies have joined the Digital Hub in the last year, bringing the number of digital enterprises there to 90

Liberties-based tech campus The Digital Hub is to make space available for up to 100 homeless people as part of its annual Cold Weather Initiative to prevent fatalities during the oncoming winter weather.

The Digital Hub, which has properties on both sides of the bustling Thomas Street area of Dublin 8, is to make an empty building available that can be converted into emergency accommodation to take people off the streets between now and April.

The building is a former industrial premises close to the sprawling digital campus.

More than 90 digital businesses are located at The Digital Hub and 17 have located at the cluster in the past year.

The Hub has also opened a newly refurbished office space called The Grainstore, which brings in an additional 10,650 sq ft of space and increased the number of buildings at the Hub to nine.

Last year, in a €40m deal, the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA) secured a new enterprise office space and a student accommodation development for the Liberties area in Dublin City.

The project is expected to create up to 300 jobs in construction in the short term, and will result in the creation of an additional 10,650 square feet of enterprise office space, as well as a housing development for 470 students on Bonham Street in Dublin 8.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com