A vacant hostel, which has cost Dublin City Council more than €10 million in rent while it has remained empty, is to be converted into emergency accommodation for homeless families at a cost of €7.35 million. The Peter McVerry Trust had in 2019 taken out a 20-year lease on Avalon House, a 19th century protected structure on Aungier Street in Dublin 2, previously used as a backpackers’ hostel.The trust intended to operate the building as emergency accommodation for 155 single men, which would have made it the State’s largest homeless shelter. Following local objections the trust dropped the plans and said it would convert the building into accommodation for homeless families. A legal challenge was mounted by Independent councillor Mannix Flynn, on the grounds that planning procedures had not been followed for the change of use of the building from tourist to homeless accommodation. In 2020 the trust agreed to transfer the lease of the building to the council on the understanding the legal challenge would be dropped. The lease was formally transferred in 2021.The building has remained vacant since, but the council continues to pay approximately €2 million a year in rent to the building’s owner, Irish Social Housing Fund 1. The property fund is provided with asset management services by real estate company New Beginning.The council has now secured the support of local councillors, including Flynn, for the conversion of the building into a “family hub” to provide temporary emergency accommodation for homeless families waiting for permanent housing.The facility will have space for 115 adults and children in 19 separate family units and will be operated by the homeless charity Depaul. The council said it entered into negotiations with the building owners in 2023 “to secure the necessary changes to the lease and consent to lodge a planning application for the proposed change of use to a family hub”. The council said these “lease changes were secured, subject to an increase in the term of the lease from 20 to 25 years”. A local Government audit shows the council’s homeless agency, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, paid €2.5 million in 2023 and €2.3 million in 2024 in rent and other charges for the empty building. The council has not disclosed the rent payable for the 25 years of the lease. Ross Maguire, New Beginning director, said queries in relation to the rent were not a matter for New Beginning. In addition to the annual rent, the council will pay for extensive refurbishment and conversion works to the building. It expects to spend at least €7.35 million on this work up to the end of 2028.An application for the work was lodged with the council’s planning department in March of this year, and the plans were last week endorsed by local councillors with formal approval from the full city council expected to be confirmed in July.The building, on a prominent corner at 55 Aungier Street, requires “extensive work” to return it to use, the council said, due to its age, protected structure status, and lengthy period of vacancy. The newly converted building will provide private sleeping and living areas, as well as shared dining, kitchen and laundry.Avalon House was built in 1879 as a medical school. Following the amalgamation of the school with the Royal College of Surgeons, the building served various purposes – a factory, accommodation for medical students and, since the early 1990s, a tourist hostel. While most of the building has been unused since 2019, a cafe continues to trade in part of the ground floor.