Nine vacant homes in Cork city for every adult in emergency accommodation

There are nine vacant homes in Cork city to every adult in emergency accommodation, according to Cork Simon.

The organisation highlighted the figures at the launch of Simon Week 2024, where it appealed to the public to engage with candidates in the upcoming election on the issue of homelessness.

Sophie Johnston, research and communications co-ordinator with Cork Simon, said figures from the Central Statistics Office show there are over 17,000 vacant homes across Cork city and county. She said one in every three of these has been vacant for at least seven years.

“That means 30 vacant homes per adult in emergency accommodation [in the city and county] or nine vacant homes to every adult in emergency accommodation in Cork city,” said Ms Johnston.

There are approximately 5,000 vacant homes in the city, and approximately 12,000 in Cork county, she said.

“While some of the vacant homes in the county are in rural areas and a number of them are abandoned farmhouses, plenty in the county will be near towns, and villages,” said Ms Johnston. 

“Certainly those 5,000 homes in the city, are most definitely close to services, close to supports, close to communities which would be important to many people moving from emergency accommodation to independent living,” said Ms Johnston.

“We need homes to tackle homelessness, and this gives an indication of how vacant homes in Cork could potentially be brought back into use to help tackle homelessness and boost housing supply, before they progress to dereliction,” she added.

The launch of Simon Week took place in Cork’s Clayton Hotel yesterday.

Wayne Stanley, executive director of the Simon Communities of Ireland, noted that Ireland had signed the June 2021 Lisbon Declaration, committing to working towards ending homelessness by 2030.

“We are putting all our efforts into this Simon Week to highlight the issues and the solutions needed to help meet our shared ambition of working to end the trauma of homelessness for thousands of men, women and children around the country,” he said.

The Lord Mayor of Cork, Green Party councillor Dan Boyle, said he welcomed Simon Week, saying it put pressure on Cork City Council as a housing authority to address homelessness, and similarly upon central Government in the lead-in to the next general election.

“We’re going in the right direction with these issues, but we’re not going fast enough, so it’s a question of providing more resources and more political will to make use of the vacant buildings to provide the housing that is needed,” Mr Boyle said.

Recently elected Sinn Féin MEP Kathleen Funchion said housing would “undoubtedly” be the defining issue of the next general election.

“In Sinn Féin, we believe that everyone should have a home of their own, a home that is secure, adequate, and affordable.

“The EU needs to develop policies and rules that do not punish investment in housing, but instead support it,” said Ms Funchion.