Leitrim accommodation housing Ukrainians set for change of use in coming months
The three accommodations, which housed 30 applicants, will be changed by the end of October.
Three Leitrim residential accommodations that were previously used to house Ukrainian asylum seekers will have a change of use.
The Anchorage Accommodation in Carrick on Shannon, Heartlands Accessible Accommodation and Hamills B&B in Ballinamore were used over the last number of years to house Ukrainian’s who were forced to flee their country following Russia’s invasion in 2022.
The accommodations were used for hospitality previously but pivoted when the Government opened the Accommodation Recognition Payment (APR) scheme, which pays landlords to help house the influx of Ukrainians into the country.
However, it was announced in May that the housing of temporary protection applicants would be phased out after the state spent €719 million on the programme in 2025 and € 1.43 billion in 2024, according to Government figures.
In 2024, the state ended 420 contracts and 195 in 2025, with the rest of the state-sponsored accommodation to be terminated in the coming months.
Following the announcement in May, Nataliya Byelyakova, a Ukrainian living in the county and a Community specialist at Leitrim Development Company, told the
Observer the plans have caused “significant stress and psychological trauma” among Ukrainians in Leitrim.