Cork Simon witnesses 33% rise in demand for services 

CORK Simon has witnessed a significant increase in demand for its services, with its latest annual report showing it experienced a 33% increase in the number of people it supported last year, leaving the charity with a deficit of more than €750,000.

The housing and homeless charity’s impact report for 2022 shows 1,370 men and women were supported across all of its services, constituting a 33% increase on its figures for 2021.

Cork Simon’s emergency shelter and nightlight service supported 529 people throughout 2022, an average of 64 people per night, compared to the average of 39 per night the charity sheltered in 2021.

50% rise in numbers sleeping rough 

The nightly number of people recorded by Cork Simon’s Outreach Team as sleeping rough increased by 50% to an average of nine people per night in 2022.

A person is determined as being in long-term homelessness if they are recorded as having experienced stays of more than six months in emergency accommodation over a 12-month period.

In 2022, the number of people who could be classed as long-term homeless at Cork Simon’s emergency shelter increased by 35% to 50 people.

While the Cork charity’s annual report shows 2022 was one of its most challenging years to date, it continued to help end homelessness for more people than ever.

Cork Simon supported 71 people to move from homelessness into secure and affordable, supported and independent housing in 2022.

Some 82 people were supported by Cork Simon’s addiction treatment and aftercare programme in 2022.

Over 350 people participated in education and training programmes, and 94 people were supported into employment.

Cork Simon’s CEO Dermot Kavanagh said 2022 had been a year of great challenges for the charity.

“Cost-of-living increases, rising inflation, and already very high rents fuelled an increase in homelessness that had a significant impact right across the organisation,” he said.

Rough sleeping, the need for emergency accommodation, and reliance on the charity’s soup run, which served 6,803 hot meals in 2022, all increased significantly, Mr Kavanagh added.

“We increased capacity at our emergency accommodation. We enhanced our outreach team in response to more people sleeping rough and we strengthened our housing teams to give those we’re supporting in tenancies the best chance of remaining housed,” he said.

Deficit

“Our financial resources were stretched to the limit, resulting in an unprecedented end-of-year deficit.”

Cork Simon ended 2022 with a deficit of more than €750,000, which Mr Kavanagh said the charity has been managing through 2023, and he said he expected its finances would be in better shape by the year’s end.

“Despite the cost-of-living pressures everyone’s experiencing, our supporters’ generosity never waned. We couldn’t be more grateful,” he said.

The charity reported that in 2022, 14,176 donors donated a total amount of €5,422,193, and it stressed that 85 cents out of every euro donated was spent directly on activities and services aimed at ending homelessness.

In 2022, 385 part-time volunteers and 26 full-time volunteers from five different countries gave of their time and skills to Cork Simon.

In what the charity welcomed as further good news, planning was approved for a 78-unit development on Railway Street to provide homes for people moving on from, and at risk of, homelessness.

“We’ve had tremendous support from our partners in the HSE and local authorities in Cork and Kerry,” Mr Kavanagh said. “Our volunteers and staff gave their all on the back of the very difficult two years of the pandemic. Meeting these new challenges has been a real community-wide effort. It’s Cork at its best.”